Searching for the administrative origins of early medieval Kent
By Dr Stuart Brookes
In Kent, as elsewhere in England, we face the most elementary questions in understanding the territorial and administrative organization of the county. How old are the systems of local government: the shires, lathes, liberties, and hundreds? Where do they come from? How did the courts of these territories work? ‘Landscapes of Governance: assembly places in England AD 400-1066’ is a three-year project supported by the Leverhulme Trust, which aims to address these questions by bringing archaeology, place-names and written sources together for the first time in a comprehensive national research project. What is more, the project is actively seeking to involve local groups in identifying possible sites and submitting them for inclusion in an on-line database.
The project will determine the broader issue of the constitution and structure of early medieval governance in the English landscape through a study of the spatial character and nomenclature of a fundamental, yet neglected, aspect of governance and civil society; places of political, social and judicial assembly and their associated districts. Assembly sites were important at many levels of early medieval society – royal, regional, local and urban – and they provided a means whereby royal and official prerogative met with local concerns. Place-names of assembly sites and their associated districts indicate varying origins, in some cases referring to pre-Christian gods, including Woden and Thor, while other terms relate to monuments of earlier ages, such as burial mounds and standing stones. Other meeting-places are named after seemingly mundane features such as crossroads, bridges and settlements.
Only a dozen or so English assembly sites have been investigated through detailed archaeological survey and excavation. One of the best examples is the site of the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery of Saltwood, near Folkestone. Burial at the site continued from the fifth into the eighth century, after which the same location became the meeting-place of the hundred of Heane, continuing in this use until at least 1279.
Studying meeting-places and their surroundings can reveal much about their relationship to other social functions and places. Form, layout, accessibility and view-shed are among the attributes to be examined by the project.
The research will generate a range of publications and a comprehensive web-based resource, (the ‘Online Anderson’) listing all of the meeting-places of Anglo-Saxon England. Resources designed to enable local groups to become involved by recording possible assembly places are available on the project website (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/project/assembly/). If you would like to become involved, or would like more information on the project, contact Dr Stuart Brookes at s.brookes@ucl.ac.uk.
Copy deadline for the next issue is 1st Sept 2011
The editor wishes to draw attention to the fact that neither the author nor the Council of the KAS are answerable for opinions which contributors may express in their signed articles, each author is alone responsible for the contents and substance of their work.