Letters

Following the death of my father last year, I have a number of copies of Archaeologia Cantiana which I would like to place in a good home. He was a member of the Society from 1950 so there are 44 volumes (1950 to 1989) in his collection. Price £50, or would consider offer. Please contact Mr. B. Kirkness.

For some time now I have assembled information from printed sources on the Kent printers and booksellers active between 1800 and 1900 for a Kent book trade directory. This will also include journeyman printers, booksellers' assistants, and apprentices. If you include a bookseller or printer as one of your ancestors, then I would be grateful if you would give brief details of his career, and I will follow the lead up by correspondence. If you also possess booksellers' letters or printers' account books or their papers and photographs, then I would be grateful if you would allow me to inspect them. Mr. R. J. Goulden.

I would be most interested if any members have any personal or local knowledge of the following:

1. Village 'foot-races' in the 19th Century or earlier, particularly inter-village contests.

2. Rope-making as a local industry.

3. Cultivation of and use of hazel as a village community industry.

Mr. D. Coast.

After several years of spasmodic research, I have reached a stage where a short article on St. Mary Magdalene's Chapel, Lidsing, nr. Gillingham, can be written. It may be, however, that some readers have personal knowledge of the area, for although the chapel was demolished in the late nineteenth century, a few grave markers were still visible until at least the early 1950s. Apparently, a small excavation took place in the area about thirty years ago of which there seems to be no written record. Also, George Payne, writing in 1888, had discovered an "Anglo-Saxon" burial, the exact location of which I have been unable to discover. If any readers have any knowledge on these points or about the area in general, could they please contact me: Alan Ward.