New Book

The Stones of Reculver Country Park (ISBN: 978-0-9561690-2-0, A5, 41pp) and The Geology of Reculver Country Park (ISBN: 978-0-9561690-1-3, A5, 53pp). By Geoff Downer, published by GeoConservation Kent, 2011, £4.50 each.

The study of building stones in Kent owes much to John Archibald’s pioneering work Kentish Architecture as Influenced by Geology, published in 1934. Nationally during the last 30 years or so many popular guides have been published, often in the form of “town trails”. Dr Eric Robinson has contributed to several, including in Kent the Faversham Stone Trail (Faversham Society, 1994) and The Building Stones of Maidstone (Maidstone Museum, 1998).

In The Stones of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (2009), KAS member Geoff Downer studied a single site, and he adopts the same approach in The Stones of Reculver Country Park.

Concise historical accounts are given of the two monuments - the Roman fort and medieval church - with building stone trails linked to detailed plans. Each type of stone is illustrated and fully described, as a building stone and geologically. The Millennium Cross - heavily weathered after just 11 years - and the stones used for the local sea defences are also included.

I visited the site and found the guide easy to use and very informative, suitable both for novices and the more experienced. Together with its companion guide, The Geology of Reculver Country Park, it can form the basis of an enjoyable day out (in good weather).

My only niggle is that there are no bibliographies, but otherwise both guides are produced to a very high standard in full colour with many photographs and diagrams and represent excellent value for money.

The guides can be obtained from GeoConservation Kent, 6 Manor Close, Canterbury, CT1 3XA at £4.50 each, or £8 for both. The St Augustine’s guide is available at £3.95. Post and packing is included - cheques payable to Kent RIGS Group.

NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVE

The Curator, the Camera and the Survey

From the Papers of the Hon. Henry A. Hannen (d. 1933) by Pernille Richards

"There was a fair attendance of members at the annual meeting of the Kent County Photographic Record and Survey, which was held in the Bentlif Art Gallery of the Maidstone Museum on Wednesday afternoon."

Maidstone Gazette, June 1 1912

A cutting from the Maidstone Gazette reporting the 1912 annual meeting of the Kent Photographic Record and Survey meeting is found among the papers of the Hon. Henry A. Hannen in a section which consists mainly of lists. There are lists of historic houses, castles and churches in Kent as well as lists of sources and images relating to them. The lists represent Hannen’s participation in the fashion for surveys and show an awareness of photography’s potential for recording and sharing information.

The Kent Photographic Record and Survey was launched with the support of the South Eastern Scientific Societies in 1904. The purpose of the Survey was: to preserve by photographic processes, records of objects of archaeological, historical, literary, and scientific interest connected with the county, and to deposit such records in the County Museum at Maidstone, and in other places where they may be suitably preserved and readily accessible to the public.’ A major contributor to the Survey was the Maidstone and District Institute Photographic Society, which is still going strong as Maidstone Camera Club, and whose contributions to the survey are still in existence. The KAS endorsed the Survey in the Proceedings of 1904 and it is recorded that they offered a number of negatives as a contribution. In the spirit of the time the Society also had an honorary photographer for a number of years, E. C. Youens Esq. Individual members of the KAS were more directly involved in the project. Sir Martin Conway was Vice President of the Survey and presided over the 1912 meeting. The Survey was mostly interested in recording buildings; in 1912 Mrs Snowden Ward contributed prints of Canterbury Cathedral and the Maidstone Society worked on old and timbered buildings, as well as locks and bridges on the Medway. However, among the prints contributed that year was a set of 26 images by Mr. H. J. Elgar of Anglo-Saxon jewellery. These were good enough to merit mention.

Mr. Elgar had been appointed as the Clerk and Curator of the KAS collection at Maidstone in 1905 after the resignation of George Payne. He also held the post of Assistant Curator at Maidstone Museum. Elgar was a keen photographer and is mentioned in the 1907 report of the Curator and Librarian, J. H. Allchin, as frequently taking part in the excursions of the local Natural History Society and photographing geological features, antiquarian objects and ‘specimens of Natural History.’ Maidstone Museum holds a series of correspondence, from the years ca. 1913-14, between Mr. Elgar and G. Baldwin Brown concerning the Anglo Saxon Material from Bifrons and Sarre. Baldwin Brown requested lantern slides and photographs from Elgar and these enabled him to study the material from Maidstone in detail from his base in Edinburgh. Images convey more than words, especially in the study of art. The Bifrons material was extensively used in Vol. 3 of The Arts in Early England, published in 1915 and in the prefatory note to the volume Mr. Elgar is thanked for his contribution of information and ‘photographs of much value.’ In 1914 Baldwin Brown was given permission to photograph the Anglo Saxon collection, so the resulting images were probably the ones to appear in his 1915 book rather than the research photographs supplied by Elgar. Maidstone Museum holds some of Elgar’s photographs, but unfortunately it doesn’t look as if any of his Anglo Saxon images are among a collection of recently digitised images. A few have no identification, but many contain the initials C.E.F. and some are clearly inscribed with the name N.C. Cook, 1931. Elgar’s Anglo Saxon images may yet come to light but for the moment it looks as if they have suffered more from the passage of time than the objects they were supposed to provide a record of.

With thanks to Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery and Giles Guthrie, Collections Manager, for use of photos and access to letters.