Letters to the Editor, Spring 2003

Dear Editor

I was present at the recent ‘bronze axe’ dig in Hollingbourne. Regrettably my new bionic knees do not allow me to kneel else I would have been down those trenches trowelling in the gault till the stars came out! But what is that to do with the invasion. I hear people ask? Perhaps a great deal. Please, just listen to my theory.

Why did perfectly good Bronze Age axes get melted down? They were extremely difficult to smelt and cast in the first place. Many modern attempts at reproducing the amazing skill of the BA Celts have not been equalled.

Secondly, why did over two dozen bronze axes and other articles manage to get ‘lost’ when as far as we know settlements ran continuously throughout the Celtic period. Bronze was an extremely valuable commodity; ‘forgetting’ where they were does not make sense!

Lastly, what about the description of three cart loads of ‘Celtic warriors’ found in Claylane Wood near Shorne in 1825 according to the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ of 1846. The workmen found ‘armour’ still in good enough condition to put on. There were metal celts (axes) ‘So bright was the metal that one of the celts was tested by fire to see if it was not gold’. To have lasted so well for so long I am sure that they were Iron Age Celtic people and not Bronze Age. So did the ceremonial bronze axes get kept and honoured for generations till they were used in battle? Strangely enough it makes sense!

It would make sense also that those axes were being melted down in an Iron Age workshop. A horse burial was found in another trench at a similar depth as the axes. Was it a proper burial? Or did the dying horse just get covered where it fell?

Most people will by now know what I am going to suggest... that the IA smiths were disturbed by the Invasion force and probably never came back to finish their casting... they may have been killed in the battle of the Medway.

To prove whether I am right (or hopelessly wrong) the solution is very simple... the charcoal in the pit and wood in the axe sockets should be carbon dated. The axes were probably re-hafted many times since they were originally made. So it would be analysis of the material of the furnace that would give the final clue. Maybe that horse was killed by a Roman arrow bolt? We will not know for certain until the dig is completed. Pity an IA potin mould did not make its appearance underneath a BA axe!

Lesley Feakes,
Chairman, Lenham Archaeological Society.

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Sandhurst glass is of poor quality, as C15 glass often is; it pales (quite literally) in comparison with the coeval glass in the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor in Canterbury Cathedral. Nevertheless it has considerable charm and interest.
Leslie A Smith

Sources:

• Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (2nd edition, 1798, p. 160; Testamenta Cantiana (K.A.S. 1907).
• Francis Bond, Deductions of English Churches: Ecclesiastical Symbolism, Saints and Emblems (1914);
• James Hall, Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (revised edition 1996),
• David Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints (3rd edition, 1982).