Books
KENT HISTORIC BUILDINGS INDEX. (Tables of listed buildings) Two recent volumes cover Swale and Thanet. Each costs £5 and may be obtained from M. Peters.
AN 18th CENTURY MAD DOCTOR, William Perfect of West Malling. by Shirley Burgoyne Black.
Dr. William Perfect of West Malling was well known in his time, not only as a surgeon and a doctor of the insane, but as a journalist and illustrator. The book includes many illustrations. Price: £3.95.
IN GOOD FAITH. A Commemoration of Twenty-five Years of a Local Ecumenical Project. (The Church of England and the Methodist Church in the Parish of Sturry with Fordwich and Westbere with Hersden. 1970-1995.) Edited by K. H. McIntosh. Available from Brita and Alan Lakeman, price: £4.50 including Post & Packing.
MIRRORS BY THE SEA. by Richard N. Scc1r 1h. This book describes the gigantic acoustic listening devices, which were installed on our southern coast in an attempt to detect the sound of enemy aircraft approaching the country. Specially trained 'listeners' managed to detect the sound of oncoming aircraft up to 2.5 miles away during trial experiments but the difficulties experienced meant that the use of 'sound-mirrors' was eventually abandoned. Published by the Hythe Civic Society. Price: £3.50.
TENTERDEN - THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS. by Hugh Roberts. A New History of the Town and Hundred of Tenterden. This fully illustrated book describes the growth of the Town and Hundred from its beginning as a clearing in the forest to its emergence as a prosperous nineteenth-century Borough. In 23 chapters, the book covers such major themes as Tenterden as a Cinque Port, the prosperity of the cloth trade, the struggles of the Civil War, religious unrest, and the burning of the Court Hall and Tenterden society in the eighteenth century. 270 pages with maps, photographs, and illustrations. Price £17.50 from bookshops, or post free from H. V. Roberts. (Cheque payable to H. V. Roberts.)
MILL HILL, DEAL. The first volume of the final report concerning the results of the important Dover Archaeological group excavations on Mill Hill at Deal in east Kent (See Kent Archaeological Review 101) was published in July 1995. The report describes the Iron Age burials recovered and has been prepared by Group Director Keith Parfitt, in conjunction with the staff of the British Museum. There are major contributions from Janet Ambers (radiocarbon dates), T. Anderson (human bones) D. Holman (coin) A. J. Legge (horse burial and other animal remains) Valerie Rigby (pottery) I. M. Stead (metalwork) and Sheelagh Stead (cremated bone). The volume is hardbacked with 215 pages, 72 figures, and 22 plates. Published by the British Museum Press on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum. Copies may be purchased directly from the British Museum. Price £60. Dr. Ian Stead of the British Museum provides a detailed report on the important metalwork recovered, whilst pottery is discussed in detail by Valerie Rigby. Trevor Anderson gives an in-depth study of the human bone and David Holman describes the Celtic coin recovered.
It can now be seen that Mill Hill represents one of the richest Iron Age cemeteries in England. Most of the Iron Age burials date from the second and first centuries B.C. and one of the earliest was also the most important. A young man (Grave 112) had been buried with his sword, shield, and ornaments, and on his head, he wore a bronze crown; the decoration of the associated metalwork provides more examples of Early Celtic Art than any other grave in England.
A second volume concerning the major 6th-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Mill Hill is now in the advanced stages of preparation.
THE PREPARATION AND USE OF LIME MORTARS. A useful Technical Advice Note compiled and edited by the Scottish Lime Centre Trust for Historic Scotland. Available for £5 per copy (plus £1 P. & P.) from Scottish Conservation Bureau, Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 lSH. Cheques made payable to 'Historic Scotland'.
GOING TO POT? THE GREAT BRITISH CHIMNEY. by John Chatham. Available from the Book Barn, Whittlebury NN12 BXS. Price £12.95.