New Publications
Living by the Sword: The archaeology of Brisley Farm, Ashford, Kent
Following 15 years of excavation and research, Archaeology South-East (ASE) has just published this monograph presenting the findings of ten archaeological sites investigated at Brisley Farm which, at its height in the late Iron Age, was the focus for an exceptional settlement revealing evidence for everyday life and death on the eve of the Roman Conquest. The undoubted centrepiece of the excavations was two warrior burials, interred with swords and spears around 2000 years ago. These finds were just one part of a rich archaeological landscape with widespread evidence of ancient land use spanning some three millennia.
Some of the earliest evidence was for a Middle-Late Bronze Age settlement followed by a Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age stock management field system imposed across the landscape. In the Mid-Late Iron Age, a small enclosure was constructed interpreted as a corral, perhaps for horse herds, becoming the focus for the deposition of pottery and animal remains, possibly concurrent with seasonal gatherings.
However, in the late 1st century BC and first half of the 1st century AD Brisley Farm developed into a truly remarkable settlement. The sequence uncovered was very complex, comprising a dynamic landscape of ditched enclosures, circular buildings, trackways, cremation cemeteries, shrines and enigmatic ‘sacred’ spaces. Undoubtedly the most significant discoveries were the two warrior burials, interred about a generation apart (AD10 and AD50) and the latest known warrior burials in Britain. They are of national, if not international importance, and are part of a rare tradition; only 25 other examples have been found south of the Humber, and they have close continental parallels. Overall, the remains represent aspects of a farming community, but one with an undoubted sacred bias, so much so that in the Late Iron Age, Brisley Farm may have been a religious and funerary focus in the wider landscape to the south of Ashford.
From around AD50 and in the 2nd century AD, there were no signs of day to day occupation. Instead there was an intensification of processes begun earlier in the century; cult or hero worship, veneration and cremation burials. By the late 2nd century, Brisley Farm appears entirely abandoned, perhaps as the nearby Roman town of Westhawk Farm grew in importance.
The medieval and post-medieval history of the site has also been studied and the publication charts the rise and decline of two farmsteads during these periods.
Copies £35 inc P&P from the ASE Sussex office, Units 1 & 2, 2 Chapel Place, Portslade, BN41 1DR.
Cheques payable to University College London. Please include your name and address.
Kent Communicants Lists 1565
Communicants Lists are lists, by parish, of inhabitants who took Holy Communion. Generally, communicants were aged 14 years and over. There was no set method of recording and the returns for each parish were set out in a different way, with differing amounts of information. For example, for Preston only the name of the householder and the number of communicants in each household was noted. For Selling, Sheldwich and Staplehurst the names of all the communicants were given. The Communicants Lists transcribed in this book, which are dated, are all dated Easter 1565, so were presumably drawn up for a Visitation in 1565. Of the places covered in this book, the parish registers of four of the parishes start after 1565, so the Communicants Lists are important for establishing names of inhabitants in these parishes in the mid-1560s.
Part 3: Boughton Malherbe, Doddington, Newnham, Norton, Ospringe, Preston next Faversham, Selling, Sheldwich, Stone next Faversham and Staplehurst, with numbers (names not given) for Faversham and Huckley. Introduction, full transcript and surname index by Gillian Rickard, 2013. 50pp. Price: £4.50, or £5.60 including inland postage. Overseas rates inc. postage: Europe: £8.00, USA/Canada £9.00, Australia/New Zealand £9.00.
Information on Part 1, and future publication of Parts 2 and 4, can be found on www.kentgen.com.
Publication has been assisted by a grant from the Allen Grove Local History Fund of the KAS (see page 7 of the Newsletter for this year’s grants).
Copies available from: Gillian Rickard, Bidston, The Row, Elham, Canterbury, Kent CT4 6UL but email GRKentGen@aol.com to check address before sending for a copy.