What’s On

KAS EVENTS

KAS AT MAIDSTONE MUSEUM

Kent Archaeological Society and Maidstone Museum supporting the 2012 Festival of Archaeology http://festival.britarch.ac.uk/

14 - 28 July. Come and visit three new displays of archaeology projects in Kent; the Meades Anglo-Saxon cemetery, the Bronze Age Boat Project and the education work of Canterbury Archaeological Trust. On Friday 20th July the President will provide short guided tours of the new displays in the Withdrawing Room gallery.

On the 20th and 21st July, visit the KAS Library where there will be displays of the work of the Society. On Saturday 21st Maidstone Area Archaeological Group will have a handling display in the Education Room and at 2.30 there will be a lecture on the East Farleigh excavation in the Museum Library.

For more information please check the KAS website www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/index.htm

KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE VISIT Gravesend Sikh Temple (Gurdwara) Saturday 22 September

Guided tour and a talk about Sikhism by a member of the temple.

2pm start outside the entrance to the temple, which is near the junction of Wellington Street and Saddington Street (postcode DA12 1AG; grid reference TQ 653 738). There is an adjacent public car park, and Gravesend Station is about 10 minutes walk. The temple has full disabled access.

Note that there is a Code of Conduct which visitors should respect. This, together with maps and directions, will be available to applicants.

Opened in 2010 and costing more than £13 million, the temple is one of the largest outside India. It took almost 10 years to build, and is clad inside and out with granite, marble and Kota limestone imported from India and worked by Indian stonemasons. It can house 1,200 worshippers in three large prayer rooms, and the roof has five elaborate domes. Further details can be found at www.gurunanakdarbar.org.

The visit costs £5 including light refreshments.

Please register by emailing or telephoning the Church Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson: jacalyn.davidson@btinternet.com or 01634 324004.

KAS LECTURES IN THE LIBRARY With Dr Jacqueline Bower Start date 24 September

Morning 10.15 - 12.15 Anglo Saxon England and Jutish Kent, c.400-1066

This period is one of the fastest moving areas of study in English history, with frequent new discoveries and new interpretations. This class will look at the end of Roman Britain and the English settlement, the conversion to Christianity, Alfred and the Vikings and the Norman Conquest. Questions to consider will include how much continuity there was between the Romano British and Anglo Saxon periods, who were the Jutes, how did England become a unified nation and what the impact of the Danish invasions and settlement was.

Afternoon 2 - 4pm Renaissance, Reformation and Reaction: Europe 1453-1720

The invention of the printing press was one of the most significant events in European history, enabling the spread of new ideas in the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic monarchies responded by strengthening their absolutist rule, a process which reached its peak in the reign of Louis XIV of France. Russia and Prussia began their rise to become major European powers and the Ottoman Empire dominated the Middle East. This class will look at the internal affairs, international relations and economic development of the European nations in this period.

Price £90. To book contact Joy Sage at the museum on 01622 762942.

KAS PLACE-NAMES COMMITTEE DAY CONFERENCE ON PLACE-NAMES Saturday 3 November, 10.30 - 4.30

At the Visitor Information Centre, 95 High Street, Rochester ME1 1LX.

Speakers:

• Locative surnames on the move: when Kentish names leave Kent, and when newcomers arrive, Paul Cullen (Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England)
• The Case of Northminster and other Thanet mythologies, Richard Jones (Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester)
• The Canterbury Carta Antique Project: a major source of names, Liz Finn (Kent History and Library Centre)
• Place-names and boundaries, from Goudhurst to North Woolwich, Paul Cullen (as above)

Tickets £12 each. Please download booking form from Events section on KAS website or contact Hon. Sec. Place-Names Committee, Val Barnard Davies, email: rattersnap@aol.com tel: 07947 583327.

EVENTS AROUND KENT

PRACTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY STUDY DAY ONE DAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORKSHOP

Organised by Wye Rural Museum Trust and Canterbury Archaeological Trust, with input from the KAS, Dover Archaeological Group and Archaeology at Kent University, to provide practical experience in archaeological methods.

Saturday 8 September, from 10.00 to 16.00 Agricultural Museum at Brook, near Wye, TN25 5PF

The day will be run in TWO sessions: morning and afternoon, and ALL the workshops will take place in BOTH sessions.

Timetable:

• 10.00 - 10.30 Coffee and registration
• 10.30 - 12.30 First Session
• 12.30 - 13.30 Lunch (not provided)
• 13.30 - 15.30 Second Session
• 15.30 - 16.00 Tea and way forward

There will be FOUR workshops covering the following:

• Field walking
• Finds identification & recording
• Surveying
• Geophysics Resistivity &/or Magnetometry

Participants are asked to select the workshops in order of preference (see application form). Due to limitations on group size early application is advisable. However, every endeavour will be made to ensure that participants have their first two choices. To that end, tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and will be sent out in the last week of August.

Cost £20 for the day. You are advised to bring a packed lunch. Application form is available on the KAS, Museum Trust and CAT website or direct from Dr S. Sweetinburgh, 11 Caledon Terrace Canterbury CT1 3JS; 01227 472490; s.m.sweetinburgh@kent.ac.uk. Please enclose SAE if using Royal Mail. Cheques made payable to CAT.

RANDALL MANOR COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY EXCAVATION 7 - 29 July

This will be our seventh season investigating Randall Manor. Do visit us and take a guided tour of the excavations.

This year we will launch the dig with a Medieval Re-enactment weekend on July 7 and 8.

The site is open every day except July 13 and 23.

Read the site blog on www.facebook.com/archaeologyinkent. For more information contact Andrew Mayfield at andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk or 07920 548906.

COUNCIL FOR BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY SOUTH EAST CONFERENCE Marking Past Landscapes & AGM Saturday 13 October

Large Hall, Dorking Christian Centre, Dorking

• 2.00 Welcome by David Rudling
• 2.05 Geological Markers (provisional title) Roger Birch
• 2.50 Places of significance and transformation in the Medway valley: creating the earliest Neolithic communities in Britain. Paul Garwood
• 3.35 Tea and AGM
• 4.15 Meeting the land – social context of prehistoric field systems. Judge English
• 4.55 Close

Tickets £10.00 non-members, £8.00 members and students

Bookings from: Mrs R Hooker, 59 Thornton Place, Horley, Surrey RH6 8RJ. Email: rosemary.hooker@blueyonder.co.uk

STUDY DAY AT All Saints' Church, Lydd, Kent Saturday 22 September

Perhaps better known as 'the Cathedral of the Marsh', Lydd church hosts a large collection of 17 brasses. This Study Day will include a range of lectures by scholars on the history of the church, the town, and its townsmen and women, and examine how the brasses and other memorials met the commemorative needs of the medieval and early modern parish. Delegates will also have the opportunity to examine the brasses which are normally hidden from view under the nave carpet.

Cost £20.00 for members of The Monumental Brass Society, the British Association for Local History and the Romney Marsh Research Trust, £40.00 non-members. Concessionary rate of £15.00 available for full-time registered students.

A booking form can be downloaded from http://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/Lydd_-_Saturday_22nd_September_2012.doc

Please address any queries to Gill Draper on development.balh@btinternet.com

LOOSE AREA HISTORY SOCIETY

Monday 8 October 'The Vestry Meeting' by Dr Jean Stirk

Monday 12 November 'Glenn Miller Lives On' by John and Sue Pearce

Monday 10 December 'A Country House Christmas' by Pat Mortlock

Meetings start at 7.30pm and are held at Loose Infant School Hall, Loose Road, Maidstone.

Further information from our website www.looseareahistorysociety.webeden.co.uk or phone 01622 741198.

THE COUNCIL FOR KENTISH ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE RECENT RESEARCH ON ANGLO-SAXON KENT Saturday 20 October 2 - 5.30pm The Old Sessions Lecture Theatre, Canterbury Christchurch University, North Holmes Campus

Monastic foundation and the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon Kent: A Review of recent excavation at Lyminge, Alexandra Knox, Reading University

Kentish Anglo-Saxon acquisitions from the British Museum, Sue Brunning, British Museum

Discovery of a Major Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Eynsford, Brian Philp

Tickets £5.00 available from C.K.A., 7 Sandy Ridge, Borough Green, Kent TN15 8HP.

(S.A.E. please).

Website www.the-cka.fsnet.co.uk

This information is correct at the time of publication.