Letters
Editor's Note: In publishing the following letter from Mr. Don Coast I would like to add my personal appreciation for all the work he does (and has done) for the K.A.S. - not just as a highly efficient arranger of lectures but in the hundred and one responsibilities he takes on with quiet modesty and unfailing cheerfulness.
TO ALL K.A.S. MEMBERS
The culmination of our third year of K.A.S. Lectures (1992/5) is now in sight and it is with a mix of regret and relief that I lay down my baton. My remit from the President was to organise talks county-wide and from my original list of venues only Herne Bay and Sheppey have been excluded.
It is perhaps invidious to refer to individual speakers, all of whom have made the task enjoyable, but I must share the audiences' pleasure in our three 1994/5 women speakers - Mary Scott at Wrotham, Vicky Golding at Canterbury (despite the cramped accommodation) and Margaret Roake at Stone (almost as crowded).
I must, too, express my thanks to those in the audiences who have helped with tea-making and the preparation and clearing after meetings. Not least, my heartfelt thanks to Arthur Forknall, who has, indeed, been my right-hand man, selling tickets, and self-effacingly preparing tea and doing other kitchen chores.
All good wishes to my successor! Please give him or her the generous support that I have enjoyed.
Don Coast.
VACANCY!
Our President would dearly like to hear from a member or members who would undertake the organisation of lectures for the 1995/6 season. A resolute couple might well undertake the work. Prospective candidates are invited to phone Don Coast after 18.00 hrs. to learn what the job entails.
MYSTERY OF THE MISSING GLASS
I am researching into the history of early Medieval Britain and for some time I have been trying to trace Anglo-Saxon glass vessels from Kent. My search has taken me to all parts of Kent, and to many venues throughout the country. Mostly, my discoveries have been made in museum collections but there are some items which are known to have been held in private collections in local houses. These are often located near to an excavated Anglo-Saxon cemetery, such as a vicarage or a manor house. One such location lies in the village of Eastry, at Brook House, where before the 1920s a group of two glass vessels of Anglo-Saxon origin and two Jutish pottery vessels were known to have been held by the then owners. These vessels are recorded items and photographs are in existence. Since the house changed hands in the late 1920s, no trace of these vessels has been found and it is presumed that they are now lost. The present owner has no knowledge of these items and was unaware of their existence until I recently approached them and made enquiries. I hope, in writing this letter, to jog the memory of any reader who might be able to help me solve this mystery and any information, however insignificant it may seem, will be greatly welcomed. Please contact or write to me.
Win Stephens
HUGUENOT REFUGEES
For many years in Biddenden there has been a tradition that Huguenot refugees lived and weaved cloth in the 17th-century timbered houses on the South side of the High Street. This story probably derives from Charles Igglesden's 'A Saunter through Kent with Pen and Pencil', moreover the houses were built during the period when the Wealden Wool Industry was in terminal decline, so on the face of it, it is an unlikely story. However, research in the Centre for Kentish Studies has produced a lease of 1689, mentioning one THOMAS TOSSON, Gent. as lately owning the houses. It is possible TOSSON is an anglicised version of Tousaintes, however one M. TOUSAINTES of Pauce, a minister, was listed as a refugee at Rye on the night of 28th, March, 1569 (SAC, XTII, 1861, p.180- 208). Despite extensive searches the name TOSSON does not seem common to Kent, however it is possible he was a London merchant.
Has any member of the Society, possibly researching Huguenots come across TOSSON, TOWSON, TOUSAINTES, or any other variation of this name? Alec and Daphne Miles.