The Publication Committee needs volunteers
The Kent Archaeological Society, the learned County Society of the historic county of Kent, with over 1,600 members, is committed to the research and publication of 'archaeology', interpreted in the traditional sense as embracing all aspects of the study of the past. Publication has been a major function of the Society from its inception, embracing an annual journal, Archaeologia Cantiana, and record volumes and monographs.
Archaeologia Cantiana, dating from 1858, is a hard-back volume with over 400 pages, available only to members and institutional subscribers, including Universities, and is published annually in July. It has developed and commands a good academic reputation, offering a wide range of articles, many containing illustrations, plans, and tables, followed by book reviews. The Honorary Editor, Mr. Terry Lawson, and the Book Reviews Editor, Dr. Elizabeth Edwards, well deserve the Society's gratitude for building on the strengths inherited from Dr. Detsicas and earlier editors. To date, 121 volumes have been published since 1858, the most recent volume, cxx1 (2001), being a memorial volume to Dr. Alec Detsicas, Honorary Editor 1970-1999, and Mr. Kenneth Gravett, President of the Society 1988-1998, containing papers on Romano-British Kent and on Kentish Historic Buildings, with lists of their published works.
Six volumes have been published in the Monograph Series, the most recent being The Bishops and Monks of Rochester 1076-1214, by Colin Flight, running to 320 pages, with 29 figures and 16 plates, which appeared in 1997. The Kent Records Series runs to 29 volumes, one appearing in each of the last three years, beginning with xxv11: Religious Worship in Kent: The Census of 1851, Edited by Margaret Roake (1999), Pp. lii+460, with 9 plates and 7 maps. November 2000 saw the publication of xxv111: The Survey of Archbishop Pecham's Kentish Manors 1283-85, Edited by Kenneth Witney, with a Foreword by Dr. Joan Thirsk, Pp. lxxxiv+ 390, with 2 maps and 1 figure. The most recent volume appeared in June 2001, xx1x: Kent Hearth Tax Assessment Lady Day 1664, Edited by Duncan Harrington, with an Introduction by Sarah Pearson, Pp. cxiv+687, with 11 plates, 5 tables, 1 figure, and 13 maps. These and other publications can be ordered from Mr. Duncan Harrington, Ashton Lodge, Church Road, Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent CT18 8JA.
It can be seen immediately that these publications are substantial works of reference and more are planned. The Society has been fortunate in attracting historians whose scholarship is well known. Above all, the volumes exist to stimulate further research, nowhere more clearly stated than by Dr. Thirsk in her Foreword to the Pecham volume: "This volume will doubtless stimulate further research on this survey, which is so rich in allusions and clues to the making of thirteenth-century Kent society and landscape." A review of the Roake volume which appeared in Southern History, vol. 22 (2000), pp.261-62, concluded: "Kent Archaeological Society are to be congratulated on making available the Kentish returns of the Religious Census of 1851... There is much material here for further work."
Seventeen members serve on the Publications Committee, several of whom assume onerous responsibilities within the overall functioning of the Society: the President, the Honorary General Secretary, the Honorary Treasurer, the Honorary Librarian, the Honorary Editor, the Book Reviews Editor and the Committee's Chairman and its Secretary, Miss E. Melling, who oversees the smooth running of the Society's Kent History Fund, which is administered by the Publications Committee.
The Publications Committee, with a budget in excess of any other Committee within the Society, is heavily reliant on long-term expertise and professionalism in a variety of skills: archaeology, local history, archives, education, research, and publications. Archaeologia Cantiana does not present a problem distributed as it is only to members and institutional subscribers. The Committee has a problem with other publications: quality Monographs and Record Volumes, where sales are slow and disappointing and storage facilities within the Society are limited. Personally I would like members to purchase more of these publications, given preferential pricing as between members and non-members. This article finishes, however, by appealing for one or more volunteers to join the Committee, solely to advise on and promote publicity and sales. There will be no requirement for editing or refereeing future publications. If any member of the Society with marketing expertise would like to assist the Publications Committee in this important area, please write to me at 52 Langdale Avenue, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 0PG.
Dr. John Whyman
Chairman, Publications Committee