Committee Round Up

GRANTS FOR KENT LOCAL HISTORY PROJECTS

A total of £3,100 has been granted to Kent local history projects by the trustees of Kent Archaeological Society’s Allen Grove Local History Fund.

The grants are awarded annually to encourage interest in Kent’s local history. Sums of up to £500 (or more for ‘exceptional projects’) are available to help cover the cost of research, publications, exhibitions and other projects.

This year’s recipients are:

• Dr Melanie Caiazza of Harbledown, Canterbury £500 towards the publication of a video and paper on the 16th century Hales funerary monument in Canterbury Cathedral which is unlike any in England and depicts Sir James Hales’s burial at sea.
• Chatham Historical Society a contribution of £300 towards the publication of its journal ‘The Medway Chronicle’.
• Hoo Village Events Committee £500 to help pay for the production of a film documentary about life in the area today, which will be shown to the local community at a film festival.
• Sevenoaks Historical Society £1,000 towards publishing ‘The Sevenoaks Book’, an illustrated historical encyclopaedia of the town with entries on people, places, organisations and themes.
• Smarnden Local History Society £250 to help update and reprint the ‘Smarnden Heritage Trail’ booklet previously supported by Allen Grove Fund in 2006.
• Alan Stockwell £300 towards the cost of publishing ‘Finding Sampson Penley’, a book recording the Jonas and Penley company of actors which had a circuit of theatres in Kent and Sussex in 1798-1840.
• Wrotham Historical Society £250 towards the research and publication of a booklet entitled ‘Fragments of Wrotham History’ about the lives of famous people who have lived in Wrotham.

Allen Grove was Curator of Maidstone Museum from 1948 to 1975, Hon. Curator of the KAS for 26 years (and its President in 1987/88) and Chairman of the Kent History Federation for eight years. When he died in 1990 he left £26,000 from the proceeds of the sale of his house to the KAS, with instructions that the society should invest the legacy and distribute the interest in ways that would promote the enjoyment of Kent’s local history. The first grants were made in 1994. Since then more than £28,000 has been awarded, mainly to support the publication of books and booklets but also for displays in heritage centres, oral history projects, and establishing archives and research centres.

The deadline for applications for next year’s grants is March 31, 2013. Details from www.kentarchaeology.org.uk or from KAS General Secretary, Peter Stutchbury: email secretary@kentarchaeology.org.uk, tel: 01303 266996.

KAS Churches Committee

Visit to Hinxhill and Wye: June 30
By Paul Lee

The committee’s June visit brought a group of 35 people together to see the churches in Hinxhill and Wye, a united parish near Ashford. The afternoon was organised and led by KAS president Ian Coulson with input on the day from Dr Paul Burnham, formerly a lecturer at Wye College, who is an expert in the local history, architecture, soils and geology, and agriculture (past and present).

At both churches, beginning at Hinxhill, our guides walked us around the outside of the churches in order to set them in the context of the local topography, agricultural land use and settlement history. Ian Coulson additionally instructed us in the use of our digital architectural church guides (you need to have been there to know what these are!), helping us to date the buildings by observing the walls, windows and arches. Hinxhill is a tiny, isolated settlement set on a fertile island above surrounding boggy areas. There are reputed to have been connections with Hengist, the Jutish warrior king, in the fifth century. The church is a small 13th century building with 14th century additions, and consists of a tower with massive buttresses and broach spire, nave with north aisle, a chancel and north chantry chapel. There are possible indications in the chancel, identified on the day by Churches Committee chair Mary Berg, of the original smaller Anglo-Saxon manorial chapel.

Wye Parish Church is a much grander building, reflecting the importance of the medieval landowners, principally Battle Abbey, and the richness of the local agriculture. The present church was built in the late 13th century, and was extensively remodelled by Archbishop John Kempe, a local boy, between 1432-1447, during which time he also founded and built the neighbouring college of secular priests. This lofty church was originally even larger than it is now but its original chancel and transepts were destroyed by the collapse of the central tower in 1686. The Earl of Winchelsea paid for the present smaller chancel to be built, in classical style, in 1706, and the churchwardens had the massive new tower built in its unusual position to the south of this chancel.

The afternoon concluded with refreshments kindly provided by the Wye Historical Society in the ‘Latin School’, a 15th century building attached to Wye College which has been developed as a village heritage room. Mary Berg thanked Ian Coulson and Dr Paul Burnham on behalf of everybody present for what had been a fascinating, educational and extremely enjoyable afternoon.