Report on the Later Medieval Kent Conference
by Diane Heath, University of Kent
The ‘Later Medieval Kent’ conference, held in December 2011 at the University of Kent, Canterbury, was a suitable ornament for the eponymous book, edited by Sheila Sweetinburgh, for its audience numbered over a hundred, a telling indication of the subject’s popularity.
In the first panel Dr David Grummitt, under the title: ‘The Kentish Aristocracy in the Later Middle Ages: A County Community?’ discussed whether there was a sense of ‘county community’ among knights, esquires and ‘parish gentry’ of Kent during this later medieval period. Could a county community be said to exist when there are three distinctly negative factors present: the wide disparity in the circumstances of Kent gentry; the sheer size of the county and its highly varied topography? Having taken his audience through these three themes he maintained that, although less hierarchical and elite by the beginning of the sixteenth century, ties of kinship were still important in engendering a sense of county community.
The second paper in this panel was given by Richard Eales on ‘Castles and Politics in Late Medieval Kent’ in which he explored castles and castle historiography. Debate has raged in the new discipline of castle studies over the meaning and purpose of castles. For, as Richard pointed out, the real interest in castles lies in how much they embody medieval life and how much they are, as he phrased it, ‘intimately bound up with change’; that is, not only social and military changes over time but also alterations in political status and the king’s power. Certain themes run through the history of Kent and its castles and it is this rich mixture which makes Kent so fascinating to study. Even though this was a swift tour of the castles of Kent, it was accompanied by a thoughtful bibliography.
The first on the Economy was given by Dr Gillian Draper entitled: ‘Tinker, Tailor, Merchant, Sailor: Trades and Occupations in a Maritime County’, where she examined the evidence for the geographical spread of trades based on local records. For example, carpenters in the New Romney area could be land-based or ship-based. The wide variety of sources also reveals the use of by-names which, before the thirteenth century, generally accurately related to occupations, and thereafter sources such as the Lay Subsidy records are very useful. To sum up, Dr Draper’s expertise in examining local medieval records is clearly immense from the many examples she provided, but her lightness of touch ensured her paper was a delight to hear.
Next Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh considered ‘Agricultural Practices in the Medieval Kentish Marshlands’, beginning with the factors that have influenced farming including topography, the position of market towns, the proximity to London, patterns of seigniorial ownership and the vital role of the peasantry. She then turned to two case studies, firstly the Kentish marshlands from 1250 and secondly, fifteenth century Monkton, before concluding that much work has been done on Kent gentry but there is a lot more to be gleaned from documentary and archaeological evidence to form a clearer picture of Kent peasants and their agricultural practices.
After lunch the session on the Church began with a paper by Dr Elizabeth Edwards on ‘The Smaller Monastic Houses of Late Medieval Kent’. In the period 1220 to 1540, Kentish monasteries varied not only in terms of a dozen different orders but in terms of the size of these establishments, and were spread fairly evenly throughout Kent. However, there was some natural concentration in and around Canterbury, and it must be noted that elsewhere too, the foundations of smaller houses were possibly due to the influence of larger ones nearby, including cells granted independence, such as the Cluniac establishment at Monks Horton. This paper served as an excellent foil and background to its partner, for Dr Rob Lutton concentrated not on the monastic but on parish faith.
Dr Lutton spoke on ‘The Dissemination of the Jesus Mass in Kent, c.1460-c.1540. Devotion to the Holy Name of Christ became an important cult from the fifteenth century onwards in England. Proselytized by prelates, and Richard Rolle, its intense focus on Christ is clearly something that commented upon Lollardy. It involved contemplation and repetition of Jesus’s name and votive masses, and grew via the foundation of fraternities for lights, altars and masses in parish churches and the provisioning of these items in parishioners’ wills. Thus the growth of the cult may be ascertained by church records and testamentary evidence. Having provided a brief overview of the geographical spread of the cult in England, he explored several Kentish case studies and finished with some tentative conclusions.
Sheila Sweetinburgh opened the final session on the Town under the heading ‘The Use and Abuse of Urban Spaces in Late Medieval Kent’, adopting a microhistory approach to investigate an event. On 24th August, 1532 the curate of a chantry and three churchwardens were arrested, according...
to the Old Red Book of Sandwich. Not a ‘hold the front-page’ event perhaps, but in Sheila’s excellent paper this ‘small nugget’ of a report allowed; an examination of the use and abuse of urban space; a reflection on the repercussions of transgression, and; a broadening out of the analysis to discuss the negotiation of the political in late medieval northern European society.
The final paper was given by Sarah Pearson on ‘Townhouses: Layout and Usage in Late Medieval Kent’ which discussed the physical ambience of life in Kent towns, where there are sufficient medieval survivals, which meant she focused on Canterbury, Sandwich and Faversham. In the late medieval period there was not an especially Kentish form of housing, so the buildings are fairly standard. However, they differed according to size, the status of the town and the necessities of the work undertaken by townspeople. Nevertheless the audience was provided with a fascinating overview of the subject and afterwards questioning focused on heating open halls and shops. A longer, full report on the conference can be found on www.kentarchaeology.org