Notices
2021 Annual General Meeting
At the time of writing, the country is slowing emerging from the third lockdown, with the Government touting the date of 21st June as being a possible end to the current restrictions. Experience over the last 12 months tends to suggest that as the Covid 19 virus evolves and mutates, government dates are suspectable to sudden and dramatic change.
With this in mind, the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Society, which would have been held on Saturday 15th May 2021, is cancelled. However, there are essential matters that you, as members, should decide upon, namely the appointment of Patrons, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the election of Trustees.
Using our new constitution as a CIO, we can make these decisions by way of a postal ballot. Therefore, in April 2021, the Society will conduct a postal ballot. During April, you will receive the ballot paperwork together with a stamped addressed return envelope. If you decide to participate in the ballot, it is essential that you sign the declaration on the ballot paper.
This is a constitutional requirement; if the declaration is not signed, your ballot cannot be considered.
On Saturday 15th May at 10:00 am, we will conduct a Microsoft Teams Live Event during which Shiela Broomfield (Membership Secretary) will announce the results of the postal ballot, Barrie Beeching (Treasurer) will give an overview of the 2020 accounts, and Kerry Brown (President) will provide you with an in-depth briefing on the strategic path that the Society will follow over the coming years. In May, you will all receive an invitation to this online meeting, together with detailed instruction on how to join the meeting. The invitation will be in the form of a link to a Microsoft Teams Website; one mouse click on the link takes you directly to the event.
Clive Drew
Honourable General Secretary
Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society – Research and Publication Grants
The Society has limited funds available to award a grant to individuals researching any aspect of the history or archaeology of Canterbury and its region. lt is envisaged that a grant would not normally exceed £500. Preference would be given to work resulting in publication in any media.
Please apply in writing to the Honorary Secretary of the Grants Committee by the next deadline of midnight, 30 June 2021.
Your letter should mention:
Your qualifications
The nature and length of your research
The title of your project
The stage you have reached in your research
The sum of money you are applying for, including a breakdown of the total, by type of expense
Any additional funding anticipated from other sources
Your proposals for publication
Your anticipated timetable.
You may be asked to name a referee whom the Committee making the grant could consult. lf successful, you would be expected to account for the money spent and give a copy of any article, pamphlet, etc., to the Society. A recipient may be invited to give a lecture to the Society at one of its monthly meetings. A summary ofyour research may be published on the Society’s website:
Website: www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk
For further details, please contact the Honorary Secretary of the Grants Gommittee:
Mr. Barrie Beeching Holly House Church Road Hoath
CANTERBURY, Kent CT3 4JT
Email: beechings1@gmail.com lssued: 1 January 2021
Kent New Research and Publications Fund
By Sheila Sweetinburgh
Since Council established this fund in response to an initiative from the Publications Committee, committee members under the leadership of Elizabeth Edwards have been busy working with outside partners and publishers on a series of books that will address pertinent, contemporary issues in Kent history.
The committee published one essay collection in 2020, another is due to be published this year, and it is hoped the third will come out in 2022. Each project has also involved at least one conference as a way of promoting the topic and assessing the level of interest among KAS members and those from outside the Society as a means to widen participation and hopefully reach people and groups who might not otherwise engage with Kent’s history.
In this short piece, I want to introduce the three books and highlight this exciting offering by the Society, which in many ways builds on the excellent series of books produced by Kent County Council. The Kent History Project series of ten books, published by Boydell between 1994 and 2016, covered the county’s history from prehistoric times to the twentieth century and was for much of the time under the general editorship of the late Ian Coulson, the Society’s President until his untimely death in 2015.
Turning to the Society’s volumes, the one published in 2020 is War, Trade and the State: Anglo-Dutch Conflict 1652-89, edited by David Ormrod and Gijs Rommelse (Woodbridge, Boydell). This arose from the June 2017 conference on the Dutch in the Medway to mark the 350th anniversary of the Dutch fleet’s incursion into the River Medway when they attacked the English fleet at Chatham and Gillingham. As a result, three capital ships were burnt or captured, as were ten ships of the line and the flagship of the English fleet HMS Royal Charles was towed away. Making it one of the worst defeats in the Royal Navy’s history, it had significant consequences for the subsequent development of the navy and its dockyards. Thus, it was fitting that this well-attended conference was held in the Historic Dockyard at Chatham, bringing together scholars from the Netherlands and England, the event sponsored by KAS. In terms of sponsorship, it is important to note that the Rochester Bridge Trust supported publication.
As Google reports. “This book re-examines the history of Anglo-Dutch conflict during the seventeenth century, of which the three wars of 1652-4, 1665-7 and 1672-4 were the most obvious manifestation. Low- intensity conflict spanned a longer period. From 1618- 19 hostilities in Asia between the Dutch and English East India Companies added new elements of tension beyond earlier disputes over the North Sea fisheries, merchant shipping and the cloth trade. The emerging multilateral trades of the Atlantic world added new challenges. This book integrates the European, Asian,
Left
Fig 1: Cover of War, Trade and the State: Anglo-Dutch Conflict 1652–89
Right (opposite page)
Fig 2: Cover image for Maritime Kent: Rivers of England Watercolours – Rochester on the River Medway, 1822 JMW Turner D18156 © Tate
American and African dimensions of the Anglo-Dutch Wars in an authentically global view. The role of the state receives special attention during a period in which both countries are best understood as ‘fiscal-naval states’. The significance of sea power is reflected in the public history of the Anglo-Dutch wars, acknowledged in the concluding chapters. The book includes important new research findings and imaginative new thinking by leading historians of the subject.”
Keeping with this maritime theme but extending it chronologically and thematically, the second collection of essays, to be published this year, similarly started with a conference held at Canterbury Christ Church University in 2018. Maritime Kent through the Ages, under Stuart Bligh’s editorship, Elizabeth Edwards and Sheila Sweetinburgh, will again be published by Boydell. As the editors’ highlight, even though the Kentish coastline, one of the longest in the country, forms three sides of a very diverse peninsular, close to both the European mainland and London, there has never been a composite study of the county’s maritime history. Through this regional history of Kent as a maritime and coastal county, within the context of its topography and its geo-political relationship to its interior, London and the whole country, continental Europe, and the wider trading world, this book seeks to redress that balance and show that Kent’s maritime history has had a unique and significant impact.
The volume takes a thematic approach, within a broad chronology, using three major themes after the introduction and chapter by Chris Young, who sets the scene through his assessment of the county’s changing coastline from the Last Ice Age to the present day. The fourth section comprises individual case studies, and together the book constructs a wide-ranging picture of the forces of development and change over the past two millennia on the widely different stretches of the Kent coastline from the Thames estuary (and the ancient county boundary in London), the north Kent coast and around Thanet, to the ports at the end of the North Downs and the extremes of the Romney Marshes.
The first section comprises four articles on Kent’s strategic role in the country’s defence, exploring the development and redevelopment of coastal defences from the Roman period to modern times, including the formation and growth of five naval dockyards. The
As well as financial support from the Society, the editors would like to thank the trustees of the William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust and Peter Hobbs for their support in this venture. To celebrate the book’s publication, the Publications Committee with the Centre for Kent History and Heritage intends to hold another conference in November 2021. Currently, planning is at an initial stage, and details will appear later in the Society’s Events Calendar; please do look out for this.
Turning to the third essay collection, this will examine ‘Migration in Kent through the Centuries’ and is being edited by Elizabeth Edwards, David Killingray and Peter Clark. Again, this will be a multidisciplinary volume drawing on the work of archaeologists and historians and chronologically will move from prehistory to modern times. Such a study is especially timely in the twenty- first century and for Kent, which has been the portal into England over many centuries. Most of the articles are with the editors, and it is hoped that the outstanding ones will be submitted very shortly. Consequently, the editors would like to see the volume’s publication in 2022, marked by another conference, to highlight the work’s relevance in our increasingly multicultural society.
Events
Thomas Becket: Life, Death and Legacy (online conference using Zoom)
Wednesday 28 – Friday 30 April 2021
The year 2020 marked the 85th anniversary of Becket’s martyrdom and the 800th anniversary of the translation of his body into the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral. To commemorate his extraordinary life and legacy at Canterbury, scholars at Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent will co-host a conference, to be held online via the Zoom Video Conferencing website.
The speakers over the 3 days will examine the history, visual and material culture, archaeology, architecture, literature, liturgy, musicology, and reception of Becket’s cult at Canterbury, across Europe and beyond, with keynote papers by Rachel Koopmans, Paul Webster and Alec Ryrie. Also, there will be a series of virtual tours, taking people right into the heart of Canterbury Cathedral and the surrounding area, allowing those attending the conference to get up close with some of the stunning architecture and artefacts from Becket’s long and storied history.
Cost: £25 per day, £10 per day for students. Website: https://becket2020.com/
Email: canterburybecket2020@gmail.com
Friends of Canterbury Archaeological Trust (FCAT) and Centre for Kent History and Heritage (CKHH) lecture: Eanswythe Found? by Dr Andrew Richardson (CAT)
Thursday 13 May 2021, 7pm online using Zoom
In early 2020 a team of researchers, including staff from Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Canterbury Christ Church University, gathered in the parish church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, Folkestone to investigate human bones that had been discovered near the altar during alterations in 1885. It had long been suggested that these might be the lost relics of St Eanswythe, daughter of King Eadbald of Kent (r.
616/18–640). The team set out to establish whether this could be the case. Their findings, shared with the world in March, only days before the national lockdown, surprised many. In this talk Andrew Richardson, who was a leading member of the team, will provide a full account of the evidence along with his view as to whether Eanswythe really has been found.
Details: https://www.canterburytrust.co.uk/fcat Or email sheila.sweetinburgh@canterbury.ac.uk
Sussex Archaeological Society conference: Archaeology and Climate Change
Online via Zoom, Saturday 17 April 2021 (09:30 – 16.15)
Tickets £13–£20. More information: sussexpast.co.uk/ event/archaeology-and-climate-change-conference
Centre for Kent History and Heritage: Kentish Saints and Martyrs lecture series
Saturday 18 – Saturday 25 September 2021, 7.30pm (notice of planned evening lecture series – circumstances permitting)
Provisional programme:
Saturday 18 September: CCCU: ‘An introduction to the cult of saints’ by Dr Sarah James (tbc)
Monday 20 September: St Martin’s church: ‘Ox jawbones and Blacksmith’s tongs: Saintly Bishops in Early Medieval Kent’ by Dr Diane Heath (CCCU)
Tuesday 21 September: St Paul’s church: ‘St Anselm’ by Dr Ralph Norman (CCCU)
Wednesday 22 September: St Mildred’s church: Anglo-Saxon female saints by Teresa Pilgrim (tbc)
Thursday 23 September: St Dunstan’s church: ‘Conflicting convictions: martyrs of the 16th century’ by Dr Doreen Rosman (tbc)
Friday 24 September: St Peter’s church: ‘In Becket’s shadow: late medieval Kentish minor and failed cults’ by Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh (CCCU)
Saturday 25 September: St Thomas RC church: ‘The role of clothing in Thomas Becket’s life and cult’ by Professor Rachel Koopmans (York University, Toronto)
Donations or any other arrangement organised by the respective churches for their benefit.
Details will be posted in due course on: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/ research-kent-history-and-archaeology/centre-for- research-in-kent-history-and-archaeology.aspx
Contact: sheila.sweetinburgh@canterbury.ac.uk
Surrey Archaeological Society online conference: Shining a light on the transition from Late
Iron Age to Early Roman SE England
Saturday 8 May 2021 (10:00–17:00)
Tickets £5. Book online at: www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk