What’s On

KAS Events

KAS Churches Committee Visit
Saturday 25 September

A visit is arranged to St Mary’s Church, Brabourne and to St Martin’s Church, Aldington. We meet at St Mary’s at 1.45 for 2pm and go to St Martin’s at approximately 3pm.

Tour £2. Tea and biscuits £1 extra. A booking form for the visit is included in this Newsletter (to be returned by 20th September please). Further details from Mary Berg (KAS), 5 Orchard St, Canterbury CT2 8AP. Phone: 01227 450426. Email: maryberg@hotmail.co.uk

KAS Historic Buildings Committee Conference
Saturday 9 October
Harrietsham Community Centre
9.30am for 10 am, until 4 pm

This year’s conference will include talks by David Martin (Weald & Downland Open Air Museum): 'Historic Buildings - Linking Documentary and Physical Evidence'; and David Carder: 'Kent’s Agricultural Heritage in Buildings'. There will also be reports on some of the parish studies being carried out as part of the Peopling Past Landscapes Project. After the Conference, participants are invited to visit St. Margaret’s Church at Wychling for a guided tour.

Tickets £10 each. Lunch available, £6 each. A booking form is included in this Newsletter. Further details from: david_carder@talk21.com.

KAS Place Names Committee Conference
Saturday 6 November
Rochester Visitor Centre, 95 High Street, Rochester
10.30am – 4.30pm

Three speakers from the Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham.

• Place-names in the Rochester area, Dr Paul Cullen
• Coining names: legends and language in Anglo-Saxon England, Dr Jayne Carroll
• Lunch (there are many eating places nearby)
• The place-names of Anglo-Saxon governance, Dr John Baker
• Kentish surnames in the Middle Ages, Dr Paul Cullen

Tickets £7.50 each. Cheques in advance please, payable to KAS. A booking form is included in this Newsletter, to be returned by 25 October to Anita Thompson (KAS), Brattle Farm, Five Oak Lane, Staplehurst. Kent. TN12 0HE. Phone 01580 891222. Email anita@anitathompson9.wanadoo.co.uk.

KAS Lectures in the Library
Victorian England with Dr Jacqueline Bower
20 meetings on Mondays from 20 September
10.15am - 12.15pm in the KAS Library, Maidstone Museum
Cost £80.00

This class will study developments in the social and economic history of England from 1837 to 1914. Topics will include electoral reform, the poor law, public health and housing, the impact of railways and education.

A booking form for this course is included in the Newsletter.

Events Around Kent

Festival of Archaeology Coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology
Saturday 17th July to Sunday 1st August

Two weeks of special events nationwide held by museums, local societies, national and countryside parks, universities, and heritage organisations. Events listings are online at http://festival.britarch.ac.uk/.

Conferences

Romney Marsh Research Trust Conference
Romney Marsh: recent and future research
11 September 10am – 4pm
Grimond Building, University of Kent

A one day conference presenting recent research findings on the physical development, human occupation and history of the Romney Marsh area through the ages. Topics covered will include coastal evolution, vegetation history, recent archaeological work and agricultural change from the late medieval period onwards.

Unearthing the Past: Language, Ownership, Value and Meaning in Public Archaeology
Friday 24 (eve), Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 September
University Centre, Folkestone

Canterbury Christ Church University, supported by Council for British Archaeology South East.

A three day conference on Public Archaeology at the University’s campus in Folkestone. The event will also include the CBA South East AGM and will provide an introduction to ‘A Town Unearthed: Folkestone before 1500’, a three year community project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund to investigate Folkestone’s origins and prehistory. There will be a tour of the current excavation, a chance to hear about the project and presentations on themes of public engagement and ownership of archaeological projects. Speakers will include:

• Professor Chris Gosden (University of Oxford)
• Dr Nick Thorpe (University of Winchester)
• Dr Chris Green (Oxford Archaeology)
• Steve Willis (University of Kent)
• Dr Helen Clarke (University of Southampton)
• Caroline Barrie-Smith (Canterbury Christ Church University)
• Andrew Richardson (Canterbury Archaeological Trust)

Tickets for the conference are £30 for all three days or £15 per day (CBA SE members £25/£12). Please make cheques payable to CCCU and send to Stephanie Ostrich, Dept. History and American Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, CT1 1QU, or email stephanie.ostrich@canterbury.ac.uk for further details.

Every Friday in August: Roman Food and Feasting

Discover what the Romans really ate and experience a mock Roman feast. Make a Roman feast menu card to take home. Also mosaic making, dressing up as Romans, Roman games, brass rubbings, sand 'digging' tray.

Sessions at 10.30am and 2.30pm. For 5-11 year olds. No booking needed. Children to be accompanied. Entry £3 per child, accompanying adult free.

Information about any of the above events from: Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit on 020 8460 1442 or email crofton.rom.villa@btinternet.com.

ROMAN TOMBS AT KESTON, Bromley, Westerham Road
Sunday 19 September 11am – 4pm

Free entry with guided tours of the monumental circular and rectangular tombs and displays.

Pedestrian access only. Parking at Heathfield Road and Keston Ponds.

Information: Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit on 020 8460 1442 or email crofton.rom.villa@btinternet.com.

Special Commemorative Archaeological Weekend at Dover Roman Painted House, New Street
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 July, 10am – 4.30pm

Site Lectures at 11am and 2.30pm by archaeologists who discovered the House in 1970.

Admission FREE to KAS members on production of membership card.

All KAS members are cordially invited to visit the Roman Painted House in Dover on the above days. This special shared event is to celebrate 40 years (1970-2010) of non-stop excavation, publication and public presentation in Dover by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit. The discoveries in that time have been spectacular and have totally transformed knowledge of Roman and Saxon Dover, already published in three volumes.

Admission free to KAS members, although donations will be welcome. Follow the venue road signs; parking on the forecourt or in nearby town car parks. Mainline Priory station is nearby.

TALKS

Crayford Manor House Historical & Archaeological Society
PROGRAMME OF TALKS 2010/2011

• Saturday 9 October 2010
  Romance of London’s River: Southend to Sonning, Tony Farnham.
• Saturday 13 November 2010
  A Country Christmas, Pat Mortlock.
• Saturday 11 December 2010
  Kipling - his life and work (in costume), Geoff Hutchinson.
• Saturday 8 January 2011
  A Brief Education, Crayford Town Archive.
• Saturday 12 February 2011
  Gad’s Hill Place - Dickens’ Little Kentish Freehold, Anne Carter.
• Saturday 12 March 2011
  How Charing got its Cross, John Halligan.
• Saturday 16 April 2011
  AGM and President’s Lecture.

All meetings held at the Baker Trust Hall, Maxim Road, Crayford at 7pm for 7.30pm. Non-members welcome to attend at a fee of £3.00 per lecture (except for December when there is an additional charge). Enquiries to Mrs J. Hearn-Gillham, phone: 01322 551279, email: janet.hearn-gillham@ntlworld.com.

Details of the Society’s summer excursions from Mr L Davies on 01322 525335.

COURSES

University of Kent Local History Modules from September 2010

The University of Kent will be offering a number of Local History and Archaeology/ Classical Studies courses at various centres, including its campuses at Tonbridge and Canterbury. These courses form part of the Certificate in Combined Studies, an open entry programme intended for those who have not previously gained a university qualification.

Local History:

Popular leisure and culture in SE England in the 19th & 20th centuries (Gill Draper, 10 weeks from September at Tonbridge University Centre and Ashford Adult Education Centre). Back to the Schoolyard: an introduction to the history of education (Gill Draper, 10 weeks from January 2011 at Tonbridge University Centre and Ashford Adult Education Centre). Life and Work in England, 1560-1760 (Jackie Bower, 20 weeks at the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone County Hall). The River Thames from sea to source 1750-1950 (Candie Horton; 20 weeks at Rainham Adult Education Centre).

Archaeological and Classical Studies:

The Age of Stonehenge - an introduction to prehistoric archaeology (John Grigsby, 20 weeks at Canterbury Campus). Reading Latin Literature: Aspects of the crisis of the Roman Republic (Rachel Ollerenshaw, 20 weeks at Tonbridge Adult Education Centre).

Full details of these and other courses are available on www.kent.ac.uk/df/ccs/subject/index.html or in the brochure available from the Centre for Flexible Learning, University of Kent, T: 01227 827647 E: ccs@kent.ac.uk.

The University’s Certificate and Diploma in Local History will also be offered at the Tonbridge University Centre and are similarly intended for those who have not previously gained a university qualification, T: 01732 352 316 E: tonbridgeadmin@kent.ac.uk.

Certificate in Local History modules:

• Using Historical Sources: Kentish Local History Research (Sheila Sweetinburgh)
• Poverty and its Problems (Gary Evans)

Diploma in Local History modules:

• Economic and Social Change in Kent from 16th to 20th Century (Phil Betts)
• Late Iron Age, Roman and Early Anglo-Saxon Kent (Colin Andrews)

EVENTS ELSEWHERE

The Archaeology of Wooded Landscapes
Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th February 2011
Meridian Hall, East Grinstead

A joint Conference between the Historic Environment Awareness Project (Weald Forest Ridge) and the Sussex Archaeological Society.

Speakers include:

• Della Hooke (Birmingham Uni)
• Dr Mark Gardiner (Queens Uni, Belfast)
• Roger JC Thomas (Military Support Officer, English Heritage)
• Nicola Bannister (Landscape Archaeologist)
• Adam Mindykowski (Worcs CC – Wyre Forest LiDAR)
• Vivienne Blandford (Landscape Archaeologist)

Conference on Saturday, field trips on Sunday morning. More details to follow in the next Newsletter.

The Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group (FSARG) presents

Davington Mysteries

Reports from a recent community based historical and archaeological investigation into a fascinating corner of ancient Faversham town.

Guided walks through the parish’s history, including a tour around the grounds of Davington Priory (by kind permission of Bob Geldof KBE)

Key Speakers
Dr. Gillian Draper (University of Kent)
& Dr. Pat Reid (FSARG)

October 9th 2010
9.30am – 4.30pm
Tickets £15
(Includes parking, lunch & refreshments)

Proceeds to Davington Church. For a booking form tel. 01795 536254 or email info@fsarg.org.uk
Or visit our website www.community-archaeology.org.uk