Committee Round Up

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 linen vault supporting the loft platform above, and a running foliage motif along the top of the bressummer. 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.co 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 ‘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

The Historic Buildings Committee has 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 (10.134). 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 Klevnas, 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