KAS Newsletter, Issue 99, Spring 2014

PHOTOGRAPHERS NEGATIVES FOUND Turn to page 4 Newsletter | Events Edition Visit our website: www.kentarchaeology.org.uk SPRING 2014 ISSUE NUMBER 99 MYSTERY PHOTOS Turn to page 11 2014 EVENTS PLANNER Turn to page 7 KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Lord of the Manor Excavation International Liaisons You & Your Society Committee Round Up New Books Lead Flask at Randall Manor Also inside this issue KAS President’s Message Turn to page 3 2 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk One hundred and sixty six years ago, three men; William Henry Rolfe, Charles Roach- Smith and Thomas Wright, began an archaeological investigation at a site near Ramsgate, a hillside overlooking Pegwell Bay. In the previous year Anglo-Saxon burials and Roman finds had been made when a deep railway cutting was excavated through open chalk downland at Ozengall Down, or Osendun, a short distance north of an inn called ‘Lord of the Manor’, giving the area its popular name. Subsequently, from 1976, the site has been explored by members of Thanet’s archaeological community. A landscape has been revealed that was settled in the early prehistoric period and which continued to be a place of cultural significance into the early medieval period. In August 2013 a training excavation led by the Trust for Thanet Archaeology, with students from the University of Kent, once again explored part of this site. The work was funded by the University of Kent as part of a programme of fieldwork training coordinated by Dr Luke Lavan. The work aimed to revisit an earlier excavation of part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and re-plan graves that were emptied in 1982, to check the results and review the knowledge already gained. Initial review showed that the earlier sample of the site was quite small and there was a great deal of scope to refine the plan. A preliminary magnetometry survey revealed that a composite plan of the area produced after the excavations had a serious error, placing the ring ditch around 17m too far south of its actual location. It appeared that sections were excavated through the ring ditch on a system of compass bearings rather than by considering the orientation of the features. The sections were therefore not representative of the true relationships between features, nor very useful in defining the dimensions of later features, which, it now seems, include a substantial central cut feature. A small area of the ring ditch, which may have surrounded the central mound of a Bronze Age round barrow, was sampled, to reconsider how the ditch was filled. The team also investigated whether pits dug through the circuit in a later period could indicate the ditch’s survival in the landscape and possibly discover something about the way people who dug the pits understood the older monument. The first of three segments excavated through the undisturbed northern area of the ring ditch eventually reached the ditch bottom, showing a symmetrical profile. In the chalky fills near the base of the ditch, part of a large cattle skull was found. The skull appears to have been tipped in with the fill and does not seem particularly significant to the interpretation of the ring ditch. However, the find does cast light on the type of animal that occupied the landscape contemporary with the ring ditch builders and that they ate, or worked. The second and third segments confirmed the regular, wide and straight sided profile of the ditch and the flat base, perhaps one of the widest seen in similar monuments in Thanet. In the lowest fill of the third segment the sparse finds included a cattle vertebra, located at a similar level within the ditch fills as the skull found a few days before, and a struck flint, found in the primary silting right on the base of the ditch cut. The truncated crest of the southern edge of the ring ditch cut was traced to its truncation by a later feature, allowing us to reconstruct an accurate plan of the circuit under the later deposits in the final site plans. The sheer scale of the ditches cut into the hard chalk of the hill top are impressive. Care and precision made the ring ditch, demonstrated in the uniform profile and the regular circuit; it was almost sculpted out of the chalk geology. In common with many other examples in Thanet, this ditch shows no sign of deviating from its plan where variations were encountered in bedding planes of the chalk. These substantial archaeological features are as ‘architectural’ in their design and careful construction as any standing structure. It became clear that the feature’s real location in the landscape is more significant to the physical Fig 1: Lifting the cattle skull Fig 2: Aerial overview of the excavation taken with the quadcopter rig Lord of the Manor Ramsgate Training Excavation with University of Kent Students By Trust for Thanet Archaeology Fig1 Welcome to this, the first of the new series of Newsletters. As you are aware, the Society has been looking to balance the budget in recent years. The income from our investments has fallen since 2008 and we have created a five year plan to help us to consider and shape our activities. It has been clear for some time that our membership publications need to be reviewed. Each year, Archaeologia Cantiana costs about £20 per member and the Newsletters a further £18 per member. With a membership fee of £25, each member is being subsidised from our other income. The Council has to balance the books and ensure that the collections, the Library, conferences and committee activities are maintained. This is why Council, as part of the five year plan, is reviewing the cost of Archaeologia Cantiana and the Newsletters. Council is also keen not to increase the membership fee for the Society, which remains one of the lowest www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014- KAS Newsletter 3 landscape occupying the plateau at the crest of the downland ridge overlooking Pegwell Bay. This space, with horizons falling away on all but the northwest side where the plateau continues, is unique in the natural landscape of this location. The location is similar to many round barrows and other ring ditch features in Thanet, and owes more to a careful choice of local topographic conditions than any reference to a wider cosmology. The 1982 records suggest that the southern portion of the ring ditch had been cut away by two separate pits on the east and west sides. A more complicated picture emerged during the excavation, showing that the pits were associated with a larger cut feature. The truncated ring ditch was traced some distance into the pit complex by removing part of the fill of a segment excavated in 1982. In doing so we encountered Twix wrappers and a six pack bag of Hula Hoops, both apparently of 1982 vintage, plus a rather stubborn sheet of polythene covering what seems to be an old kitchen door, this last apparently put in the section to ‘protect’ the archaeology! Toward the end of the excavation we began an EDM survey of a group of graves belonging to an important early Anglo-Saxon cemetery which had been fully excavated in 1982, leaving only the empty grave cuts showing in the hard chalk geology. The small scale composite plan of the cemetery, the only record we have of the layout of the graves, has proved to have significant inaccuracies in the representation of form and distribution of the graves. Although no burials remain in place, there is much of archaeological value to gain from re-planning the graves. Already we can see that a more accurate plan will help us to determine the order of the burials. Just before the end of the dig, we made contact with Dean Barkley, who carries out low level aerial photography using a quadcopter rigged with a digital camera. Although we faced the slight problem that our site was directly under the flight path of Manston airfield, after negotiations the control tower gave permission for a flight. The stunning images of the excavation made all the hard work to clean the site for our final photographs worthwhile and rounded off two weeks of excavation with a spectacular flourish. in the country. In future the Newsletters will continue to be posted to members and will appear twice a year. In this, the Spring newsletter, there is an annual programme of events, so members can plan the activities they would like to attend. The second Newsletter, to be published in the late Autumn, will contain a more extensive collection of illustrated articles. From this summer, Archaeologia Cantiana will be published in softback. It will be a larger format and will include colour illustrations. This will save money and allow the effective publication of maps and plans. Council has found these decisions difficult but is determined to keep membership fees low and increase the value and quality of the activities promoted by the Society. Lastly, I would like to thank Paul Oldham, Chairman of The William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust, for funding the production and distribution costs of an extra volume of Archaeologia Cantiana. Our Hon. Editor, Terry Lawson, and his team deserve special mention for the sterling work they have done to see the 134th volume of Archaeologia Cantiana published this January. Thank you to everyone involved. Ian Coulson For more background and information go to http://thanetarch.co.uk/ journal/?cat=16 Those who know the KAS President’s preferred form of transpor t will see that he graduated to a motorcycle from three wheels... Welcome Fig 2 i 4 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk During a fire at Maidstone Museum in 1977 about 10% of the collections in our Library were damaged. Our Visual Records Collection alone consists of some 20,000 images in various formats, including thousands of irreplaceable glass plate negatives. No one knows how many were rendered beyond repair and discarded, but hundreds were saved, although details of their provenance were lost. Now, thanks to the efforts of Ann Pinder and colleagues, many of the surviving negatives have been scanned and conserved. Among them were rare examples of the work of American pioneer woman photographer Catharine Weed Barnes Ward, who lived at Golden Green, near Tonbridge, and died in 1913 leaving 10,000 glass plate negatives of pictures of landscapes and historic buildings. More than 300 of them illustrated two travel books written by her husband, Henry Snowden Ward, and published in 1904 – ‘The Real Dickens Land’, describing locations in Kent and elsewhere that were the settings for Charles Dickens’s novels; and ‘The Canterbury Pilgrimages’, featuring places visited by medieval pilgrims as they made their way to Thomas Becket’s shrine. One of the negatives Ann scanned was a view of the ballroom at the Bull Inn, Rochester, now the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel (featured in the July 2013 Newsletter). Luckily its caption was legible, revealing that it had been taken by Catharine Weed Barnes Ward. Research revealed her collaboration with her husband on ‘The Real Dickens Land’. The ballroom photo was found on page 73, captioned with a description from Pickwick: ‘A long covered room, with crimson-covered benches and wax candles in glass chandeliers’. Eventually 52 negatives were discovered that exactly matched pictures of places in Kent elsewhere in the book. Next, the group identified the negatives of 23 of the 33 photographs Catharine took in Canterbury for ‘The Canterbury Pilgrimages’, and collated more than 100 other negatives of Kent scenes that circumstantial evidence suggests were her work. The images of the Dickens locations are important because they were taken less than 40 years after he died in 1870 and show them much as they were when he wrote his novels. Catharine was born in Albany, New York State, in 1851. At 35, she started studying photography, intending to make a career in a male-dominated profession. Some medical ‘experts’ even considered that such ‘advanced learning’ would overtax young women “before their brains are sufficiently developed”. Catharine joined a photographic society at a time when few of them accepted women members, one reason being that the prospect of Fig 1: Catharine Weed Barnes Ward Fig 2: Henry Snowden Ward Fig 3: Ann Pinder and colleagues THROUGH FIRE AND WATER - ‘LOST ’ PIONEER WOMAN PHOTOGRAPHER’S NEGATIVES FOUND IN OUR LIBRARY by Paul Tritton Fig 1 www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 5 women developing their negatives in darkrooms also used by men was considered positively scandalous! While advocating that women photographers should be treated as men’s equals, Catharine fought to abolish so-called ‘ladies’ diplomas and prizes’ in competitions and exhibitions, saying: “Do not admit a woman’s pictures because they are made by a woman but because they are made well”. Catharine rose to the top of her profession, specializing in travel photography. Her pictures of landscapes and buildings of historical importance, many associated with great writers and their works, were published in countless books and periodicals and shown during her lectures to photographic societies. In 1890 she joined the staff of American Amateur Photographer magazine in New York. Meanwhile, in London, her future husband, Henry Snowden Ward, was editing and publishing his new magazine, The Practical Photographer, and becoming an authoritative writer and lecturer on the works of Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare. Catharine and Henry’s paths soon crossed. In November 1892 she surprised her friends back home by announcing her engagement to Henry, described in the New York Times as ‘a gentleman of cultivated tastes and an enthusiastic photographer’. They were married in July 1893. In 1901 they moved to Falklands, Golden Green, a large house (now called Leigh Court) in Three Elm Lane. The Wards took time to become part of Kent life. Henry joined the Kent Archaeological Society, built a rifle range in his garden for Hadlow Scouts and Hadlow Church Lads’ Brigade, and supported the bellringers at St Mary’s, Hadlow. As specialists in travel photography the Wards were burdened with heavy cameras, tripods and boxes of fragile negatives wherever they went. They travelled to distant and remote locations by train and carriage, starting their journeys from Tonbridge station. Their happy marriage lasted only 18 years. In October 1911, with engagements to fulfil as the Dickens Fellowship’s Special Commissioner in the USA and Canada, Henry embarked on a five-month tour of North America to coincide with the Dickens Centenary celebrations in February 1912. An hour before he was due to lecture on ‘Dickens in America’ he was found unconscious in his bed at the National Arts Club in New York City. Blood poisoning was diagnosed and despite an emergency operation he died soon afterwards. Catharine was at his bedside. He was 46. Catharine returned to Golden Green, but due to the shock of Henry’s death, the aftereffects of a road accident, and failing health, she was unable to work again. She died at Falklands on July 31 1913, aged 62. In May 1912, five months after Henry died, Catharine deposited 40 photographic prints, mostly of Canterbury, with the National Photographic Survey and Record’s Catharine’s Kent images are now on our website at http://www. kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/ Libr/VisRec/01/Ward%20 Collection%20catalogue%20V3.pdf and http://tinyurl.com/prwpx3k Those at George Eastman House are at http://www.geh.org/ar/ strip13/htmlsrc/ward_sum00001. html and http://www.geh.org/ar/ strip14/htmlsrc/ward_sum00001. html With thanks to Professor Elizabeth Edwards; Dr Margaret Denny; Alistair Cook; Dr Michael Pritchard (Royal Photographic Society); Christine Baldock and Anne Hughes (Hadlow History Society). Kent portfolio in Maidstone Museum. Most of the prints are identical to the pictures she took for ‘The Canterbury Pilgrimages’ so the negatives recently discovered were probably given to the Society when the prints were deposited. It is possible, though, that more negatives made for this and her other books await discovery. The negatives Catharine made during a tour of England and Scotland in 1892 are among 2,202 in her archive at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York State. This was regarded as the only significant collection of Catharine’s negatives to have survived the 100 years that have elapsed since she died, her other negatives being lost or destroyed long ago. However, it now appears that we have the second largest collection of Catharine’s negatives – 75 for certain, more than 200 if the circumstantial evidence can be proven. Fig 3 Fig 2 i 6 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk I thought I would write to show how CAT’s educational activities, supported by you, the KAS, are spreading the good word way beyond the county of Kent. Several CAT staff members have taken part in projects abroad and Paul Bennett, Director, will no doubt be going to Libya again this year. I’ve experienced a lot of hands-across-the-water recently and, I like to think, am helping to project a positive image about archaeology and engaging people. Within the EUfunded Boat 1550 BC project, I’m currently working with partners in France and Belgium. This is a three year project (now in its final six months) and one thing I’ve learned is that it takes time to build relations with people at such distances. I’m sure I would have benefitted from a ‘preproject project’, just to find and get to know key people involved! We expect to see the new handling kits put together by the project in use in schools this Spring. In the long term, the kits for England will be housed with CAT and available for loan across the county. Another set will be held in Lille, France and a third set in Ename, Belgium. On two occasions last year, I was especially pleased to be asked by Don Henson (former CBA Education Officer and currently a Freelance Consultant), to show colleagues from Japan and Estonia the resources we have developed over recent years. The CAT collection of teaching and learning loans are a key element of our Education Service which has been consistently supported by the KAS since its early days; in particular a grant from the Society allowed us to expand production of our CAT KITs which our visitors were particularly enthused by, immediately seeing their value for engaging adults and young people alike. Last summer, we ran an archaeology workshop in Canterbury for a group of Japanese secondary school students (above). In the autumn, 240 Pas de Calais teachers came to Canterbury to see what was on offer to support their secondary school teaching programmes. The day was organised by Canterbury City Partnership in conjunction with Nord Pas de Calais Education Department and Canterbury-based heritage resource providers. CAT joined forces with Canterbury Museums Education Service and delivered a really enjoyable workshop designed to introduce students to our archaeological heritage and help them develop their spoken English. I’m pleased to say we have a few bookings already for this summer. Just recently I had a call from Lancashire – not a foreign clime but certainly way beyond Kent. A new Rural Outdoor Education Centre has been launched near Preston and the founders were very interested in using some CAT resources for their ‘bring yer wellies’ days. I’m thrilled they asked us for our support and hope that you are too. Finally, back to the beginning and the Libya connection. In December, a small delegation from the Libyan National Congress came to England investigating what we do in the UK to protect and promote our heritage. Paul Bennett arranged an extensive programme of visits and presentations from local regional and national bodies. As a contribution to this, Graham Birrell of Canterbury Christ Church University Faculty of Education and I gave a session about heritage and history in the classroom. As is widely known, Libya is experiencing great challenges at the moment and I’m sure the delegation went home having gained much that was positive from their visit to England. By Marion Green, Canterbury Archaeological Trust Education Officer INTERNATIONAL LIAISONS Please note that due to the historic nature of Maidstone Museum, any event held within the KAS Library is only accessible via stairs. EVENTS PLANNER www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 7 APRIL KENT COUNTY COUNCIL - COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY Talk: Community Archaeology in Kent Thursday 3 April at 6.15pm Kent History and Library Centre. Cost £3 per head Archaeology Exhibition: Archaeology in the Park; a celebration of the Shorne HubCAP Lottery funded project April 5th and 6th: 10am-4pm daily Shorne Woods Country Park Visitor Centre, DA12 3HX, east of Gravesend off the A2. For more information contact andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk Tel: 07920 548906. www.facebook.com/ archaeologyinkent Twitter @ArchaeologyKent KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE STUDY DAY Church Life in the Middle Ages at St Leonard’s, Hythe Saturday 5 April 10.00 - 16.00 St Leonard’s Church, Hythe For centuries a landmark for shipping in the English Channel, this hill-top church is famous for its ‘bonehouse’ in the crypt, containing 2,000 skulls and 8,000 bones, generally agreed to be from skeletons dug up when the building was extended across its graveyard about 700 years ago. Medieval Hythe & civic uses of sacred space - Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh Church upper spaces and their uses - Dr Toby Huitson Masonry sculpture: Hythe’s carved stone fragments - Heather Newton, Canterbury Cathedral Workshop 1 - Church documents & church building Workshop 2 - Church building & church documents The event will open with a talk by Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh on medieval Hythe and the civic uses of churches. A Research Fellow in History at the University of Huddersfield, Sheila is a social and cultural historian with a special interest in Hythe and is currently studying the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the town’s medieval archives – local taxation records known as ‘the maletotes’. Dr Toby Huitson, who teaches medieval history at the University of Kent and is a member of staff at Canterbury Cathedral Archives, will delve into the nooks and crannies in St Leonard’s upper spaces drawing on research for his book Stairway to Heaven, about the functions of medieval ecclesiastical stairs, galleries and upper chambers. The final talk, on masonry sculpture and St Leonard’s carved stone fragments, will be by Heather Newton, who has worked at Canterbury Cathedral for 25 years and is now its Head of Stonemasonry and Conservation. £15.00 including lunch, tea and coffee. A booking form for this event is included in the Newsletter or is downloadable from the website. Council for Kentish Archaeology RECENT EXCAVATION, DISCOVERIES AND PRESERVATION in KENT Saturday 12 April 14.00 – 17.00 Sevenoaks Community Centre Beyond the Mithraeum – MOLA Excavations at the Bloomberg London Site by Jessica Bryan The Rescue of the Last WW2 Dornier Do17 Bomber from the Sea by a representative of the RAF Museum, Hendon Preservation and Conservation at Allington Castle, Kent by Sir Robert Worcester Tickets £5.00 – send SAE to CKA, 7 Sandy Ridge, Borough Green TN15 8HP. Information from Richard Ansell 01732 884059, Ruth Plummer 0208 777787 or www.the-cka.fsnet. co.uk KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE VISIT Canterbury St Mildred and Methodist Church Saturday 26 April Meet at 13.45 for 14.00 start at Canterbury, St Mildred Map reference: TR 144575 Lat: 51.27655 Long: 1.07390 Parking is difficult in Canterbury. Parking will be available close to the churches ONLY for those with blue badges or who otherwise cannot walk from the Park & Ride, public transport or a local car park. Those who require such parking should advise the Churches Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson. https://www.canterbury.gov.uk/ parking-travel-roads/parking/park-andride/ The cost of the visit is £8 to include tea and biscuits. Please register by e-mailing or telephoning the Churches Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson. Jacalyn.davidson@ BTInternet.com or 01634 324004 KAS ADULT LEARNING COURSES IN THE LIBRARY Commencing 28 April for 6 weeks Morning Class 10.15 – 12.15 Kent Personalities with Dr Jacqueline Bower This Class will look at the lives and achievements of a selection of men and women who have been associated with Kent from the sixteenth century onwards. Afternoon Class 14.00 – 16.00 Kent Towns with Dr Jacqueline Bower In the past, Kent had more towns than many other counties. Over time, previously prosperous towns have declined while others have grown. This class will trace the development of Kent Towns from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early twentieth century, looking at examples from each ear to demonstrate their changing functions and characters. Classes cost £50 per term (six weeks). Please book with Joy Sage, joysage@ btinternet.com or 01622 762924. Cheques payable to the Kent Archaeological Society. Please include your contact details and a SAE. Postal address is: Joy Sage, KAS Library, Maidstone Museum, St. Faith’s Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH. MAY KAS EVENT with Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery  THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN THAT NEVER WAS …and an opportunity to visit the Kentish battlefields that never were Saturday 3 May 9.00 – 17.00 Join historians Victor Smith and Alan Anstee on this coach tour to the hidden WW1 defences of Kent, walking between stops. In the end months of 1914 and the early part of 1915, work began on the creation of epic lines of anti-invasion field i 8 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk defences both along the north coast of Sheppey and south from the River Swale to Detling and Boxley. Elaborated upon during the course of the war, these two areas began to resemble the Continental Western Front, with miles of barbed wire, trenches, redoubts, pillboxes, blockhouses and gun positions. These defences were to be manned and fought from by a home defence army. Removed and filled in by German prisoners of war in 1919, they gradually faded from memory but have left remnants which are only now being rediscovered. Meet at Newington Village Hall ME9 7JJ at 9.00 - free parking in the Hall car park. The tour begins with coffee and a briefing in the Hall and ends with tea and a view of the defended areas of Sheppey from the roof of Minster Gatehouse Museum, returning to Newington by 17.00. A level of physical fitness will be necessary. Bring stout walking boots and a packed lunch. This is a rare visit with leading experts and not to be missed. Price £40 per person. Advance booking to Maidstone Museum is essential on 01622 602838, preferably by card payment or by reserving and sending a cheque (reservations will be held for one week). WILLINGLY TO SCHOOL? THE EXPERIENCE OF EDUCATION FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN Day School at Canterbury Christchurch University by Dr Gillian Draper Saturday 17 May 10.30 – 16.30 Explore what was available to children across Kent and Sussex until the sixteenth century, and the changes following the Reformation with the foundation of new endowed grammar schools; investigate some well-documented examples of establishments founded at different periods such as Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Lady Boswell’s elementary school and the Thomas Peacocke school, Rye; consider the curriculum, play, discipline, conditions for teachers and how successful they were at teaching reading and writing; examine the schooling available for children of ordinary folk in schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth century: private and Sunday schools, National and British Schools and tensions between the latter as the foundations of Anglicans and non-conformists respectively; look at the Board schools set up in 1870s and the education available for the poorest in workhouses and ragged schools. Cost £27.50. Book by phoning 01227 863451 (Mon - Fri. between 9.30am and 14.30 pm), or email communityarts@canterbury.ac.uk Details on http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/community-artseducation/ day-schools/summer-2014.asp KAS RESEARCH DROP-IN SESSION WITH DIANA WEBB Saturday 31 May 10.30 – 12.00 Stuck on a Latin phrase? Puzzled by palaeography? Just starting out and feeling in need of a bit of friendly advice? Experienced academic Diana Webb will help you at a drop-in session in the KAS Library. Until her retirement in 2006, Diana was senior lecturer in history at Kings College London, specialising in the later middle ages and especially in religious and Italian history. She is the author of six books, including three on pilgrimage, and contributed the article on Pilgrimage to the Historical Atlas of Kent. The drop in session is FREE, but we would appreciate a small donation towards light refreshments. IMPORTANT: Please book in advance supplying your name, phone number and email address and brief details of what you would like to discuss -librarian@ kentarchaeology.org.uk JUNE KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE VISIT Shipbourne and Plaxtol Saturday 28 June Meet at 13.45 for 14.00 start at Shipbourne St Giles’, Stumble Hill, Shipbourne TN11 9PF Map reference: TQ5952 Long: 51.247084N, Lat: 0.279219E Then to Plaxtol Church, Plaxtol Lane, Plaxtol TN15 0PZ Map reference: TQ6053 Long: 51.259397N, Lat 0.294533E The cost of the visit is £8 to include tea and biscuits. Please register by e-mailing or telephoning the Churches Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson. Jacalyn.davidson@ BTInternet.com or 01634 324004 JULY KENT COUNTY COUNCIL COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY Community Archaeology Excavation: Randall Manor Season 9 7 - 27 July Shorne Woods Country Park, DA12 3HX, east of Gravesend, off the A2. Volunteers and visitors welcome, please contact andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk 07920 548906. The site will be open daily to visitors between 11am and 3pm. Part of the CBA Festival of Archaeology. Medieval Re-enactment Weekend July 26 and 27 Shorne Woods Country Park (address as above). Meet the Woodville Household! Medieval camp and combat displays. For more information on any KCC Community Archaeology events contact andrew.mayfield@ kent.gov.uk 07920 548906. www.facebook. com/archaeologyinkent Twitter @ArchaeologyKent East Wear Bay Archaeological Project Canterbury Archaeological Trust Season 1, Folkestone 19 July – 3 August A two-week archaeological field training school. Includes training in archaeological excavation, a series of evening lectures and other events centred on this internationally significant prehistoric and Roman coastal site. Further details from andrew.richardson@ canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276 Fee: £40 per day (£35 for Friends of CAT), or £35 per day if booking 5 days or more (£30 for Friends of CAT). NOVIOMAGUS (West Wickham) ON DISPLAY Sunday 20 July Crofton Roman Villa, Crofton Road, Orpington BR6 8AF (adjacent to Orpington Railway Station) 10.00am - 16.30pm As part of the Festival of British Archaeology 2014, for the first time ever, details of and finds from the Roman settlement site at West Wickham will be on show to the public. This site, now under a sports field and farmland, was identified by Brian Philp of the Bromley and West Kent Group as the long lost town of Noviomagus mentioned in the second Antonine Itinerary, which dates from the second century AD. A rare opportunity to find out more about this important site and to view some of the finds, including the unique and fragile rim of a Roman wheel. Entry: £1.50/concessions £1.00 For more information 01689 860939, crofton. roman.villa@gmail.com or www.the-cka.fsnet. co.uk LYMINGE EXCAVATION, UNI OF READING Monday 21 July - Sunday 31 August Join the excavation team at Lyminge Whether you are a seasoned digger or brand new to archaeological fieldwork, the Lyminge project offers you the opportunity to play an active part in an agenda-setting community EVENTS PLANNER www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 9 research excavation bringing the remains of an Anglo-Saxon settlement and monastery back to life. See the blog page http://www. lymingearchaeology.org/press/ KAS is a supporter of this project, with Ian Coulson and Andrew Richardson members of the Project Steering Group. Keith Parfitt, Chair of our Fieldwork Committee, will be on site as a senior field archaeologist. Several members of the Society have participated in previous years in the excavations and by assisting on open days. There are a number of ways you can get involved with the Lyminge Archaeological Project while the dig season is under way. If you don’t feel up to digging or have more of an interest in post-excavation activities you can turn up any time during the season and ask about volunteering for finds washing and processing or environmental processing and a short session will introduce you to the site. Those wanting to excavate will need to attend an induction, run through the first four weeks of the dig. You will need to book a place on an induction. Keep an eye on the project website (see address below) to see when induction bookings open and email comms@ lymingearchaeology.org with your name and specify which date you would like to book. You may be offered an alternative date if fully booked on your preferred day. The working week is Monday – Saturday. Volunteers can gain experience in: »» Artefact processing »» Environmental sampling If you can help to co-ordinate KAS members who are interested in artefact processing or environmental sampling please contact Ian Coulson president@kentarchaeology.org.uk More information on http://www. lymingearchaeology.org/taking-part/ BEXLEY ARCHAEOLOGICAL GROUP Annual Training Excavation 28 July – 1 August Novice excavators are welcome to join us at the Annual Training Excavation Week at our on-going site in Bexley, Kent. The site is in the back gardens of 17th century almshouses, demolished in the 1960s, but finds have included Roman pottery, a 12th century brooch and Anglo-Saxon beads. Minimum unaccompanied age is 16 (with parent’s consent). All excavators will have the opportunity to experience tasks under the supervision and guidance of the Field Officers from Bexley Archaeological Group. Tasks carried out during this week will include: »» field walking »» geophys »» surveying »» excavating »» finds processing »» site drawing Fee for the week is £100 for non-members. This includes annual membership to Bexley Archaeological Group, insurance, Certificate of Attendance and admin costs. More information and an application form from: Pip Pulfer, Bexley Archaeological Group, 07961 963893, principalfieldofficer@bag.org. uk, www.bag.org.uk or join our Facebook page. AUGUST Westgate Gardens ‘Parks for People’ Community Dig Canterbury Archaeological trust Thursday 21 - Monday 25 August Part of the Westgate Gardens ‘Parks for People’ project, led by Canterbury City Council and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. FREE, but places limited so book early. Details from Anna Williams, Westgate Parks Development Officer, at Anna.Williams@kent. gov.uk. SEPTEMBER Day School - First Steps in Archaeology (1) Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 6 September, Canterbury No previous experience or knowledge is required. Students will handle a range of artefacts during the day. Tutor: Andrew Richardson. Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). Details from Andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. Day School - Introduction to Environmental Archaeology Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 20 September, Canterbury Insight into ancient human societies, agricultural practices and environments to be obtained from study of plant and animal remains. Practical instruction - taking and processing palaeo-environmental samples to recover biological material; sorting dried sample residues to introduce more commonly recovered remains; recent environmental work from sites in Kent. Maximum of ten places. Tutors: Enid Allison and Alex Vokes. Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). Details from Andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE VISIT Stone in Oxney and Appledore Saturday 27 September Meet at 13.45 for 14.00 start at Stone in Oxney, St Mary TN30 7JR We will then move on to Appledore, SS Peter and Paul. The Street, Appledore, Nr Ashford TN26 2B The cost of the visit is £8 to include tea and biscuits. Please register by e-mailing or telephoning the Churches Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson. Jacalyn.davidson@ BTInternet.com or 01634 324004 KAS RESEARCH DROP-IN SESSION WITH DIANA WEBB Saturday 27 September 10.30 – 12.00 noon Stuck on a Latin phrase? Puzzled by palaeography? Just starting out and feeling in need of a bit of friendly advice? Experienced academic Diana Webb will help you at a drop-in session in the KAS Library. Until her retirement in 2006, Diana was senior lecturer in history at Kings College London, specialising in the later middle ages and especially in religious and Italian history. She is the author of six books, including three on pilgrimage, and contributed the article on Pilgrimage to the Historical Atlas of Kent. The drop in session is FREE, but we would appreciate a small donation towards light refreshments. IMPORTANT: Please book in advance supplying your name, phone number and email address and brief details of what you would like to discuss - librarian@ kentarchaeology.org.uk KAS ADULT LEARNING COURSES IN THE LIBRARY Commencing 22 September for 20 weeks 10.15 – 12.15 The End of the Middle Ages: England 1381-1547 During this period there were great changes in society, monarchy, government and religion, as England moved from the medieval to the early modern era. Feudalism ended, the power of the nobility declined and the middle classes rose. This class will study the period from the point of view of the monarchy and nobility and the ordinary people. 14.00 – 16.00 The British Empire 1497-1763 (Year one of two; it is intended to look at the later history of the British Empire in a future class.) The first British Empire EVENTS PLANNER EVENTS PLANNER 10 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk began with the earliest voyages of exploration in the 1490s and reached its peak in 1763. This class will look at the early voyages, the establishment of the trading companies in the sixteenth century, the increasing English and British involvement in India and the East, in the West Indies and in Africa, and the impact of the developing Empire at home. Classes cost £50 per term (ten weeks). Please book with Joy Sage, joysage@ btinternet.com or 01622 762924. Cheques payable to the Kent Archaeological Society. Please include your contact details and a SAE. Postal address is: Joy Sage, KAS Library, Maidstone Museum, St. Faith’s Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH. Field Study Day at Brook Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 27 September Details from andrew.richardson@ canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. OCTOBER CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST Day School - Archaeological Finds: Their Study and Care Saturday 4 October, Canterbury ‘Hands-on’ introduction to archaeological finds, their treatment, care, identification and cataloguing, from discovery on site through to final archiving. Tutors: Jacqui Matthews, Andrew Richardson and Andrew Savage. Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). Details from andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. KAS TALK SOME NOTES ON TUAM IN OLDEN DAYS; TUAM ART EXHIBITIONS 1943-1950 Talk by Alison Titley Saturday 18 October at 10.30 in KAS Library The art exhibitions which took place in Tuam, Co. Galway, a small town in the West of Ireland, were quite astonishing for the variety of art on display. Paintings lent to the exhibitions included two ‘Venetian Scenes’ by Canaletto and a portrait by Sir Frederick Leighton. The art of all of the well-known Irish artists of the day, such as Jack B. Yeats, Paul Henry and Louis le Brocquy was exhibited in Tuam. One art critic described the Tuam Art Exhibitions as ‘the most representative showings of contemporary art seen anywhere in the country’. Tuam might seem far away from Maidstone, however, examples of the work of Evie Hone, Clare Sheridan, Richard King and Harry Clarke, who exhibited in Tuam can be seen in London, Kent and Sussex. Until her retirement Alison Titley was Head of History at a sixth form college. Recently, she has been researching the life of her father Jarlath A. O’Connell 1912-1958, a founder member of the Tuam Art Club in 1943 and one of the organisers of the Tuam Art Exhibitions. A £5 donation is requested to cover costs and help the Society further its work. Please book by sending your name, address and telephone number by email to: librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk or write to Joy Sage/Pernille Richards, KAS Library, Maidstone Museum, St. Faith’s Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH giving the details requested. Cheques payable to the Kent Archaeological Society. If you pay in advance please include a SAE or an email address so we can confirm your booking. A Crash Course in Roman Britain Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 18 October Series of thematic lectures using extensive visual material. Effects of contacts with Rome on society and culture in pre-conquest Britain; history of the conquest; formation of urban centres; material culture of art and architecture, religious practice and funerals; last years of Roman Britain, noting any interesting comparisons to be made with recent and current colonialism. Tutor: Jake Weekes Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). Details from andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. NOVEMBER KAS PLACE NAMES COMMITTEE DAY CONFERENCE ON PLACE-NAMES In association with the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Kent Saturday 1 November 10.00 – 16.30 Grimond Lecture Theatre, University of Kent Canterbury Campus Further details and a booking form are on the enclosed flyer. Enquiries by phone 01634 268842 or 07947 583327, or email lupusrufus@sky.com Roman Pottery in East Kent Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 15 November, Canterbury An introduction to the identification and study of Roman pottery, including both imported wares, the major Romano-British industries, and locally produced wares. Tutor: Andrew Savage. Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). Details from andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. KAS TALK THE KENTISH ABROAD; TUSCANY IN THE 19TH CENTURY Diana and Tony Webb 22 November 10.30 in KAS Library The British flocked to Italy in large numbers in the nineteenth century and Tuscany, then as now, was among their favourite destinations. The aristocratic Grand Tour had given way to something more like modern tourism, although ‘tourist’ trips often lasted a great deal longer than they do now. There were also numerous residents, there for all sorts of reasons, from escaping creditors back home to seeking health in a warm climate or even running a business. Some spent years in Tuscany and then returned ‘home’, others lived and died there. People from Kent were well represented among them. They included members of families long-established in the county and others who were prominent landowners or figures in public life, such as the ex-MP for Rochester who married an Anglo-Jewish girl from Florence and a naval surgeon from Maidstone during the Napoleonic wars. A £5 donation is requested to cover costs and help the Society further its work. Please book by sending your name, address and telephone number by email to: librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk or write to Joy Sage/Pernille Richards, KAS Library, Maidstone Museum, St. Faith’s Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH, giving the details requested. Cheques payable to Kent Archaeological Society. If you post a cheque please supply an email address or a SAE so we can confirm your booking THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE KINGDOM OF KENT Canterbury Archaeological Trust Saturday 22 November, Canterbury Focusing on Kent from the 5th to 8th centuries AD, a transformative period. Tracing the story through archaeological evidence, set against the background of historical and other sources; cultural and ethnic identity of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Kent and the impact of the Conversion will be explored. ‘Hands on’, with the chance to examine and handle a range of artefacts from the period. Tutor: Andrew Richardson. Fee: £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT) Details from andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk 01227 825276. www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 11 Do you know where these pictures were taken? Among the 20,000 images in our society’s Visual Records Collection are hundreds of glass plate negatives dating back to Victorian times. In many cases no written records have survived to identify the places depicted, or to tell us when and by whom the pictures were taken. We believe most of the photographs show locations in Kent – but where? If you recognize any of the buildings in this selection, please contact us on librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk or write to KAS Library, Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, St Faith’s Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH. 1 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5 A handsome mansion, and a church that has both a spire and a tower. Gardens to the rear of an elegant house. What could be a shopfront just glimpsed through the railings on the left is numbered 130. Perhaps the interior of St. Mary’s Church, Dock Road, Chatham pictured early in the 20th century. St Mary’s has a Norman arch, like the one of the left, but is that sufficient evidence? The weatherboarded building sign says Clyde House Laundry. A substantial parish church - but where? YOU & YOUR SOCIETY 12 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk I am very pleased to welcome the following new members: Student Members Miss J Braidwood, Tonbridge Miss N Hudson, Dartford Mr M Lewis, Tudeley, Tonbridge Mr E Ratcliffe, Sittingbourne Mr L J Reynolds, Dartford Ordinary Members Miss A Adams, Sittingbourne Mr A R Anstee, Rainham, Gillingham Mr C Blair-Myers, Maidstone Ms D LA Curling, Surrey Mr Kevin Field, Folkestone Mr George Fry, Suffolk Mr Alan Fyson, Orpington Mr M R Jackson, Maidstone Dr F Meddens, London Dr P L A Newill, Wye Dr A Plourde, Gravesend Mr R F Summers, Oxfordshire Joint Members Mr & Mrs J R Carey , Faversham Mr S Gifford & Mrs R A Wasserburg, Tenterden Mr & Mrs R Wedderburn-Day, Sevenoaks Mr & Mrs M Pearson, Hythe It is good to see that we have students joining KAS, as these are our future. Of course, all are very welcome, as a good membership base means that we can continue to serve our subject in this most interesting part of the country. Please make a note of your membership number, which is on the envelope label. Many thanks to all of you who have renewed your membership – if you haven’t done so yet please do so as soon as possible. I shall be writing to those who haven’t yet updated their standing orders with the bank to take into account that the concessionary subscription has ended – any individual subscriptions paid at £15 should now be £25 and the joint rate is now £30 instead of £23. Thank you to those who have already notified the banks. Of course I have noticed that some banks have not appreciated that this new rate replaces the old one and have therefore taken two payments!! I shall write to you if this is the case. The benefits of membership are increasing, with more lectures, conferences and visits being planned. Details of many of these will be published in this Newsletter along with several interesting shorter articles. You will see that the Newsletter has been updated and that for the moment two issues will be published each year. The Autumn issue will contain longer articles on both history and archaeology and will itself be a longer publication. Also, for the moment, the ‘internet only’ issue has been dropped as this did not prove to be popular with many. The websites continue to be expanded with updated items of news, press releases, dates for your diary as well as much research material and publications. And, of course, you are also able to visit the comprehensive KAS library located in Maidstone Museum. You will need your membership card for access and it is worth a quick phone call to the Museum to make sure that no event is taking place at the time you wish to visit. The website address is www. kentarchaeology.org.uk with links to all sections and other organisations. Any feedback on the Newsletter, membership and any other topic of interest to the membership and others is most welcome. Shiela Broomfield, Membership KAS membership@kentarchaeology.org.uk The Society’s Annual General Meeting takes place on 17 May at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Agenda papers, together with the annual report and accounts, will be sent to all members of the Society during April. The Annual General Meeting will include a report on the investigations made by Council into what is required to incorporate the Society – this is an important step to ensure that the Society can meet the challenges of this modern age. The Society will advise on progress made towards incorporation and a resolution is proposed to enable Council to complete the process. The Society’s activities during 2013 are summarised in the annual report and reflect a busy and successful year for committees, with conferences, study days and lectures. Events are frequently advertised on the Society’s website: www.kentarchaeology.org.uk so please check this often to follow your interests. The website has over 20,000 pages, is a mine of information for researchers and regularly updated. The business section of the meeting will be followed by a presentation on the work of the Romney Marsh Research Trust, which promises to be fascinating. So why not reserve 17 May in your diary and come along to support your Society and find out more. During this year, the Council is reviewing its strategy for the future of the Society. Don’t forget that this is your Society and you can help the process by contributing your ideas. For example, do you have views on activities the Society should include in plans for the next five years? The Council is keen to know! Please help us to help you by writing with any contribution, big or small, to the Hon. General Secretary, Peter Stutchbury, by email to: secretary@ kentarchaeology.org.uk MEMBERSHIP MATTERS COMMITTEE ROUND UP www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 13 CHURCHES COMMITTEE VISIT TO SUNDRIDGE AND SHOREHAM In September 2013 a good-sized group gathered for a visit to two historic churches in West Kent. Churchwarden Bruce Walker introduced Sundridge. The settlement at Sundridge (near Sevenoaks) was apparently first recorded in 862 and the church of St Mary is mentioned in the Domesday Book, although there are scant Norman traces to be seen today. The church has a west tower with an original door, and a large thirteenth-century three-bay nave arcade with large cusped quatrefoils in the original clerestory which overlook very tall side-aisles. One of these contains the remains of a rood stair with a blocked upper window or doorway. The aisles continue on both sides of the chancel, where there are some late medieval monuments and a double piscina. Much of the building’s present appearance comes from its heightening and re-fenestration in the fifteenth century, although interestingly roof repairs in 2012 provided evidence that some of the timbers were in fact re-used from an earlier phase. The church has had its fair share of disasters in the last 150 years, including a disastrous fire in 1882 and a bomb falling in 1940, and the group was able to see a display of historic photographs showing the damage. Fortunately, the church is today in good condition, and its seventeenth-century bells escaped in one piece. St Peter and Paul, Shoreham is a fascinating building which greets the visitor with its colourful polychrome eighteenth-century tower, rebuilt on the site of its fifteenth-century predecessor after a fire in 1775. However, the late medieval timber-framed porch signals to the visitor that there is much of interest here from a much wider date-span. Inside, the building is almost East Anglian in feel, with slim aisle pillars, large windows, and above all the extraordinary rood screen. This has a lierne vault supporting the loft platform above, and a running foliage motif along the top bressumer. Several of the group took the opportunity to investigate the stairs to the rood loft and look out over its wide top platform, in excess of 2m (6ft) across, a very rare chance to see this type of evidence first-hand. Indeed, timberwork is the chief glory of the church, with the chestnut king-posts a defining feature of the nave roof. The same theme continues in the pulpit and organ-case, both of which, amazingly, were once in Westminster Abbey, brought here in 1827 and 1874 respectively. One of the vicars was a canon of Westminster, and the Abbey is still the patron today. We are grateful to historian Joy Saynor for sharing her extensive knowledge with us. We are planning more visits, including a Study Day on 5 April. Further details are on the Events pages or KAS website. By Toby Huitson We are very interested to hear from KAS members who do not usually join us - please see the flyer included in this Newsletter. Email to churchvisits@ kentarchaeology to be kept informed. Mary Berg, Chairman. EDUCATION COMMITTEE Members of the Education Committee expect to be busy in 2014 promoting the study and enjoyment of archaeology and history in the county. For Canterbury Archaeological Trust Education Service, Spring and Summer in particular will see the culmination of much liaison with European partners with the completion of the ‘Boat 1550BC’ handling kits for schools in England, France and Belgium; the kits will be completed and we are planning teacher induction sessions in each country followed by a gathering of teachers in Ghent to share experiences of using this new resource. Initially for use in Dover and Folkestone, the Boat kits will thereafter be available to teachers and pupils across Kent to support history in the new curriculum. Alongside this, core activities will include issuing CAT KIT, CAT BOX and ARK resources across Kent, working with Canterbury Christ Church University PGCE students as well as undergraduate teachers and delivering workshops in schools and at the Beaney Art Museum and Library. The Trust for Thanet Archaeology will be carrying out several projects supported in their delivery by a grant from the Education Committee. Our plans include a conference in conjunction with Canterbury Christ Church University, centring on public engagement and participation in archaeology and history. Our annual ‘Archaeology for You’ event will be held at the Powell-Cotton Museum as part of the National Festival of Archaeology. We are planning a series of hands-on workshops to introduce local people to characteristic finds from their area and to methods of archaeological analysis, a project shared with the Powell-Cotton Museum and the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society. We will be working with Bradstow School in Broadstairs on activities associated with their ‘Dig for Three Days’ event and are progressing the development of ‘A-Z Archaeology’, a scalable guide to studying and understanding archaeology for all ages. The North Downs branch of the Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) will be investigating the Kent History and Library Centre’s archives to uncover a grisly murder, getting up close with Iron Age finds, exploring the landscape as part of the Swale Defence Survey, digging at Randall Manor, visiting Knole and venturing out of the county on their annual coach trip. The Canterbury branch of YAC will be getting hands-on with finds processing and studying bone, getting out and about at Western Heights, the Randall Manor dig and fieldwalking, learning new skills with heritage bushcraft and re-enactment with the Freemen of Blean, and a special visit to the First World War trenches run by Andy Robertshaw, advisor to Steven Spielberg on the recent ‘War Horse’ film. Andy Harmsworth, in his role as regional adviser for the Schools History Project, will continue to support Kent secondary school History teachers and will meet with Heads of History in the county. He will also be organising a day conference for primary school teachers on the new National Curriculum History programme. Canterbury Museums Education Service will be developing resources to support the new national curriculum and will be working with a range of Kent partners to deliver workshops and events to enhance and publicise its archaeological collections. Maidstone Museum’s Learning Team will continue to work with the British Museum, their partner until March 2015, on extending the range of, and resources for, their schools workshops. HISTORIC BUILDINGS COMMITTEE The Historic Buildings Committee has COMMITTEE ROUND UP 14 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk decided not to hold a conference in 2014, but is looking at options for a conference in 2015. PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE The committee is charged to oversee the promotion of research and publications by the Society. This has been a good year. As usual Archaeologia Cantiana appeared in June, but an additional volume, funded by a member of the Society, was published in January 2014 (no. 134). Work on the cumulative index of volumes 122-130 is in hand. The Society helped promote two well-attended conferences: ‘New developments in Kentish urban studies’, 29 June at CCCU; and ‘Immigration and emigration in Kent’, 7 December at UKC. An edited volume of essays on migration is in hand. Seven theses were submitted for the biennial Hasted Prize in 2013. The successful thesis in 2011 has been published, Alison Klevnäs, Whodunnit? Grave robbery in Anglo-Saxon England and the Merovingian kingdoms (BAR, 2013); the 2009 award, to Toby Huitson, is in press, Stairway to Heaven (Oxbow, 2014). An annual prize of £250 for the best Master’s thesis on the archaeology or history of the County is subject to Council’s agreement. A grant of £1000 from the Kent History Fund went towards publication of Archaeology and land-use in the south-east of England to 1066 (Oxbow). Work continues on the revision and expansion of the Historical Atlas of Kent with a view to republication in 2015-16. A cumulative annual sum of £2000 to support academic research was accepted by Council. With sadness we record the deaths of two stalwart members who gave much to the deliberations of the Committee: Dr Frank Panton and Dr Joan Thirsk. INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY COMMITTEE This new KAS Committee is putting together a list of local societies and individuals who are researching Kentish Industrial Archaeology, or who have specialised knowledge which they are willing to share with others. The idea is to publish a list of web pages and contact details on the KAS web site, as a way of putting people in contact with each other. If you can contribute to this list please contact David Gordon in the first instance on davidgordon@dunelm.org.uk Kemsing Heritage Centre Association – Grants One of the objectives of the KHCA is to promote the research, preservation and enjoyment of the history of Kemsing and immediate surrounds. To fulfil this aim it has established a small fund to provide grants to any person or group carrying out research on a voluntary basis. Grants could cover, but are not limited to, direct expenses such as printing, photocopying and purchases of copyrights, travel expenses and publication costs. Grants will not cover remuneration for time. It is a condition of grant making that a summary of the results/copy of the publication must be submitted promptly for lodging in the Heritage Centre and for possible publication on its website. The Trustees meet on a regular basis, usually every eight weeks. Applications should be made to the treasurer and will be considered at the following meeting. Each application will be considered and careful consideration given to the respective merits of any application. For further details and application form, please contact David Williams (Treasurer) on redcourt@dsl.pipex.com or by post to Red Court, Woodland Rise, Seal, Sevenoaks TN15 0JB. Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society - Grants The Society has limited funds available to award grants to individuals researching the history and archaeology of Canterbury and surrounds. A grant would not normally exceed £500. Preference is given to work resulting in publication in any media. Please apply to the Hon. Sec. of the Grants Committee not later than 30 June 2014. Your letter should mention your qualifications, the nature and length of your research, the stage you have reached, the amount you are applying for, and additional funding anticipated from elsewhere, your proposals for publication and your anticipated timetable. You may be asked to name a referee for the Committee to consult. If successful, you would be expected to account for money spent and give a copy of any publication to the Society. A summary of your research might be put on the Society’s website. For further details please contact Mrs C M Short, Hon Sec., 3 Little Meadow, Upper Harbledown, Canterbury CT2 9BD. Grants First World War fieldworks and defences in Kent Dear Editor Can any of your readers help? The trenches and barbed wire of the First World War are enduringly associated with the killing fields of Flanders. But little is known or remembered of the extensive systems of defensive fieldworks in Britain, with an estimated total of more than 100km in the country’s south east ‘invasion corner’ alone. I am trying to find out more about them and where they were. Information Request There is evidence of systems having existed on Sheppey, the Hoo Peninsula, at Chatham, from the Swale to Detling, at Wrotham, Tonbridge and Dover as well as along the North Downs of Kent and Surrey and into Essex, forming a huge arc around London. There must have been others, whether on the coast or inland, perhaps close to road routes, at or near villages or securing places considered worth defending. So I wondered whether any of your readers would be willing to tell me of any they know about, have heard about or suspect. The overall aim, once the research is more advanced, is to share the results through publication, all help given being properly acknowledged. With thanks, Victor Smith, Defence Historian www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter 15 MEDIEVAL PIRATES: Pirates, Raiders and Privateers, 1204 – 1453. Jill Eddison The History Press, Paperback, 192 pages, fully illustrated in colour and with 16 maps. The author brings us a highly original study of a specific aspect of maritime history. Its focus is principally, although not exclusively, on the Channel from the early thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century, and deals with a period initiated by the loss of Normandy in 1204 from a very substantial Anglo-Norman Angevin empire. The lack of strong political controls on either coast bordering the Channel made it vulnerable to disorder, at times anarchy, and in particular privateering. This vulnerability is set against a backcloth which effectively draws out the allure to privateers of English trade, both through the eastern end of the Channel with Flanders and through the Western Approaches with Gascony and northern Spain. Sailing techniques and maritime technology exposed ships to great risks in open water, inclining mariners to hug the coastline on their voyages and so exposing them to attack from privateers who could identify them from coastal vantage points. Merchants, so intimately involved in seaborne trade, supplemented their income by resorting to privateering. It is powerfully revealed how there was no clear demarcation between legitimate trade and illegal piracy. Indeed, too many persons in authority had an interest in the proceeds of piracy since English and French monarchs were quick to use such individuals (some assessed in detail in this book, such as Eustace the Monk or John Hawley) to supply them with vessels for their fleets in times of warfare. This book weaves together knowledge of maritime geography and environments with that of international trade and state development to create a very novel account of the inherent instability of maritime life over two and half medieval centuries. The final chapter makes some highly perceptive comparisons between piracy in the medieval Channel and that occurring in the contemporary Indian Ocean. THE LIBRARY OF THE SIDNEYS OF PENSHURST PLACE CIRCA 1665 Edited by Germaine Warkentin, Joseph L. Black and William R. Bowen University of Toronto Press ISBN 9780802042934 Online price currently $129.50 For two centuries (1540—1740) the Sidney family of Penshurst Place, Kent, produced poets, courtiers, collectors, and at least one revolutionary. Increasingly aware of the cultural ideal of the learned nobleman and of libraries as representations of that ideal, the Sidneys massed one of the largest gentry libraries in England of their period. This edition of their library catalogue provides a vivid portrait of the birth, growth, and eventual demise of the distinguished family’s library collection. Comprising nearly 5,000 entries, the catalogue is presented with a full introduction describing the Sidneys’ intellectual world and life, their reading and collecting, the women collectors of the family, and the dispersal of the library in 1743. The editors employ all the resources of contemporary bibliography, print and digital, to identify the titles in the catalogue, and where possible to locate the Sidneys’ own copies still extant. In addition, architectural analysis has been employed to identify and describe the library room at Penshurst, now lost to nineteenth-century renovations. An elegant introduction presents the history of the manuscript catalogue and intellectual biographies of the owners of the books, in particular the second Earl of Leicester, about whom relatively little is otherwise known. The project has taken nearly thirty years, as Germaine Warkentin uncovered the manuscript in the (then) Kent Archives on March 19, 1984. THE ROYAL CHARTERS OF FAVERSHAM Peter Tann The Faversham Society ISBN: 978-1-900214-68-1 210 (+vi) pages, A4, hardback, fully illustrated in colour Faversham has a magnificent collection of town charters dating from 1252 to 1685, many of which came to the town as a member of the Cinque Ports. It includes the copy of Magna Carta, acquired independently by the town in 1300. This is undoubtedly the finest collection of any town in Britain still in the physical possession of the Mayor and Council. The charters have never been published, but this handsome, large format, hardback edition remedies the situation. New translations of each document are reprinted here in full and the text is written in an easy style accessible to as wide a readership as possible. The KAS supported the book with a grant from the Kent History Fund. Each charter is accompanied by an analysis of its content – who, what, and why? A useful box gives ‘the bigger picture’ of events in the wider world. Interspersed are narrative essays, bringing in other sources, to give a coherent history of the town for the period. Because so much of the resulting story involves the town’s relationship with the abbot of Faversham Abbey, the book begins with chapters on its foundation in 1148, (also by royal charter) and dissolution (1538). The Royal Charters of Faversham will interest a far wider readership than those who live in the town and those interested in the Cinque Ports; the dogged and heroic efforts of the townsmen to protect and defend their independence will interest all those engaged in the growing field of early urban history. Price £30 (by mail: £36.50 inc. p+p). Available from: Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 10-13 Preston Street, Faversham ME13 8NS For credit card orders or enquiries please ring 01795 534542 during opening hours, or email ticfaversham@btconnect.com (without divulging card details in the first instance). BOOKS Published by the Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Gallery, St Faith’s Street, Maidstone, Kent. ME14 1LH. Excavations will continue at Randall Manor this summer from July 7th to the 27th. There will be daily guided tours of the excavations between 11am and 3pm. For more information on the Project, to participate in the Dig and for any questions or suggestions on the Flask, please contact KCC’s Community Archaeologist, Andrew Mayfield: andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk. 07920 548906, 01622 696919 and follow www.facebook.com/ archaeologyinkent and on Twitter @ ArchaeologyKent. 16 Spring 2014 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk If undelivered, please return to S. Broomfield, 8 Woodview Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9HD Copy deadline for the next issue is 1st Oct 2014 The editor wishes to draw attention to the fact that neither she nor the Council of the KAS are answerable for opinions which contributors may express in their signed articles; each author is alone responsible for the contents and substance of their work. EDITOR: LYN PALMER 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU Telephone: 01892 533661 Email: newsletter@kentarchaeology.org.uk Have you just joined the Society? Do you wish you could collect all the back issues of Archaeologia Cantiana? Now you can have 125 volumes of Archaeologia Cantiana at the amazingly low cost of £31 for individual members and £76 for institutional members on the KAS Sesquicentennial DVD. To order your copy, send a cheque payable to Kent Archaeological Society to : Peter Tann, 42 Archery Square, Walmer, Deal CT14 7HP. ENIGMATIC LEAD FLASK FROM RANDALL MANOR, NEAR GRAVESEND Conserved with a grant from KAS A number of spectacular and enigmatic finds have been discovered during eight years of community archaeology excavation at the site of Randall Manor, an 800 year old manor house. In 2011, at the end of the excavation season, a final metal detector sweep of the site revealed a substantial non-ferrous signal in the corner of the cross-wing to the Manor complex. Built onto a mid-thirteenth century aisled hall, this cross-wing dates from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. Dug into the levelling layers for the cross-wing and covered by a pebble surface, a complete lead flask 20cm by 20cm was discovered. It was in an extremely fragile state, so a grant was successfully sought from the Kent Archaeological Society’s Fieldwork Committee for stabilisation and conservation of the flask. This work was ably carried out by Dana Goodburn- Brown, known to readers for her pioneering work at CSI: Sittingbourne. The flask is roughly square and has two small handles and a spout. There are faint traces of a white cross painted on one side of the flask. The author, in addition to being indebted to the KAS for their financial support, would be delighted to hear from any KAS member who could add to the interpretation of this object. It has been suggested that it is a large example of an ampulla or lead kostrel. Are KAS members aware of any analogous objects that could be examined? Is its presence buried under the floor of the building indicative of some sort of house blessing? It will next be on display for two days over the weekend of April 5th and 6th, in the Visitor Centre at Shorne Woods Country Park, as part of the Park’s annual Archaeology Exhibition. KAS members are warmly invited to visit this free exhibition. The Kent County Council, Heritage Lottery-funded community archaeology project in Shorne Woods Country Park is now entering its ninth year. As we come to the end of our current phase of funding, the project is focused on post-excavation works and report writing. Volunteers are busy cataloguing finds, working on the site paper archive and constructing an 800-strong context matrix for the Manor! Lead by KCC’s community archaeologist, the project is also benefiting from the work of a year-long Council for British Archaeology Community Archaeology Bursary Placement. i