ARCHAEOLOGICAL ISSUE NUMBER 92 SOCIETY SPRING 2012

Your Quarterly Newsletter

STOP PRESS Your AGM agenda and papers are included in this Newsletter. We hope to see you there.

Rocky Road to the IRon age at Folkestone VIlla

Turn to Page 2

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

2-4 Rocky Road 4-5 Notes from the Archive 6-7 What’s On 8-9 You & Your Society + Committee Round Up 10-11 Later Medieval Kent + New Books 12 - 13 Lower Medway 50 years 13 - 15 Luddenham 16 Bronze Age Hoard

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk the Rocky Road to the Iron age: excavations at Folkestone , 2011

Facing inland, work in progress

!e second season of excavation at of the main villa house, which is the surface of the natural Gault was the East Wear Bay Roman villa, portion of the site most imminently sealed by a succession of clays Folkestone ran between May and threatened with collapse into the producing signi$cant amounts of November 2011. !ings got o" to sea. !ick archaeological deposits struck flint, flint-tempered a #ying start with a visit by Dr Alice were preserved here, many relating prehistoric pottery, animal bone and Roberts and the Digging for Britain to occupation that occurred before marine shell, although there were TV $lm crew in June. !is was the construction of the Roman villa only two small associated features. followed by an open weekend with complex. !e uppermost clay layer was cut Roman re-enactors drawing the At the base of the sequence, the across by a sunken, metalled crowds in early July. !e investigations form a major The Rocky Road, c.100 BC component of a three year Heritage Lottery-funded community archaeological and historical project entitled ‘A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500’ (ATU). !e work is being undertaken by volunteers led by Canterbury Archaeological Trust, in association with Canterbury Christ Church University and the Folkestone People’s History Centre. Additional funding has come from the KAS and the local Roger De Haan Charitable Trust. The 2011 excavations were positioned across part of the

Front - Hare brooch, cover Small Find 330 Front inset cover - Cleaning tiles near the cliff edge undisturbed courtyard area in front

2 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk trackway (christened !e Rocky Road), associated with pottery provisionally dated to around 100 BC. An infant burial had been casually deposited by the side of this track at some stage. A short distance further to the north-east was a substantial oven pit. These discoveries, together with a scatter of post-holes, appeared to represent the earliest features of a settlement continuously occupied throughout the late Iron Age and into the Roman period. Eventually, the trackway went out of use and the hollow became $lled with soil and rubbish. At one point a pit had been cut into these accumulated soils to allow the insertion of a burial urn containing cremated bone. Subsequently, the levelled area became occupied by hearths and chalk #oors relating to two separate timber buildings, each one rebuilt several times. Traces of a possible four-post structure, perhaps a raised granary, were also recorded close by. All these structures would seem to date from Intaglio, found near the main entrance the late $rst century BC. After the timber buildings had gone out of use the area was cut did, however, yield one important side, closest to the main entrance across by a succession of ditches. find – an engraved gemstone into the villa, this new rubble layer !ese probably served to delimit (intaglio), found near the main occurred at two distinct levels. $elds and enclosures. Some of the entrance. On the north-east side, Nearest the building it existed as a ditches were of substantial during the earlier part of the fourth clear platform. A sloping rubble proportions; the latest ones were century, the yard surface became bank separated this raised area from early Roman in date. !e $nal ditch covered with soil and rubbish and the remaining spread. As well as in the sequence had been deliberately quite clearly this part of the pottery and animal bone, soil mixed back$lled sometime during the later courtyard was now out of use. with the stones produced eight $rst century AD, to make way for Subsequently, a section of the villa coins. !eir dates indicate that the the construction of the villa. roof collapsed onto the courtyard, rubble cannot have been laid before Once the ditches were levelled, followed by masonry from the walls. the mid–late fourth century AD. the area was covered by more soil It would seem that at least part of !e heyday of the Roman villa had and clay before rough, patchy the villa was by now ruinous and certainly passed by now and the new metalling was laid down as a unoccupied. courtyard may have been laid down courtyard in front of the Roman Later, however, the roof-fall, as a work area after the main house villa. No evidence of any associated collapsed walling, and soil layers was abandoned. garden or ornamental features was over the courtyard were all sealed A thin layer of dark soil discovered and the whole by a laid rubble surface which subsequently accumulated over the arrangement appeared lacking in seemed to constitute a new (upper) rubble surface. !is contained much re$nement. !e metalling courtyard. Along the south-western much domestic rubbish and a

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012- KAS Newsletter 3 THE ROCKY ROAD TO THE IRON AGE - Continued

further nine coins, all of which are There are also more than 800 great deal of new information is still fourth century in date, one perhaps registered small $nds, including to be recovered from this long- being as late as c.AD 390. Activity coins, brooches, glass, iron known site. It is clear that the on this part of the site, however, implements and quernstone excavated Roman villa complex does not seem to have continued fragments. Of special interest were occupies the site of a much older much into the $fth century. After the engraved gemstone, four pieces settlement. Intact strati$cation, the villa was $nally given up, the of a small Mother Goddess $gurine, untouched by previous excavation, site seems to have remained largely a complete iron writing stylus, a appears to survive across much of unoccupied until the present-day. decorated Iron Age bead, and an the area but the entire site is A signi$cant quantity of $nds was important collection of 36 Iron ultimately threatened by coastal recovered from the 2011 excavation. Age coins. erosion. Without doubt, much !e bulk of the material consists of The two seasons’ work at more work is warranted here. pottery, animal bone, marine shell, Folkestone have now yielded some roo$ng tile and prehistoric #intwork. remarkable results and show that a NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVE The English at School From the Papers of W.P.D.Stebbing by Pernille Richards

‘!e English at School’ was the Act. !e Times article of the name of an exhibition arranged 12th of April, announcing the by Arnold Muirhead on behalf exhibition and appealing for of the National Book League material, is found among the between April and May 1949. papers of W.P.D. Stebbing, It aimed to show English School along with other items on Life in its various guises; private education collected in the schools, charity schools and the years between 1947 and 1949. eventual establishment of state W.P.D. Stebbing’s papers schools. Kenneth Lindsay, reveal a keen interest in Chairman of the National Book education; he attended many league, appealed for old school Education Committees as a reports and similar documents councillor between 1941 and to be lent to the exhibition and 1955 and he was a frequent a variety of textbooks and speaker for Educational documents were exhibited, along Societies including the Deal with a selection of disciplinary Men’s Society. !e collection equipment. An article in !e on educational matters is Times on the 8th of April more eclectic than his reported it as an ‘exhibition of archaeological notes. It progress’ in education. !e story consists of a mix of articles of education always fascinates, selected from !e Times and but no doubt interest in the Fig 1 more academic items such as subject matter was heightened the address ‘On Education’ to by the recent 1944 Education the British Association for the Fig 1: ‘Horn book (AN1887.2561) Courtesy of Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Fig 1: ‘Horn book (AN1887.2561) Fig 2: Image of Village School found among Stebbing’s papers, edition of Longfellow’s Prose possibly from Works the 1835

4 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org. Advancement of not neglect to wash has Stephen Pritchard in his 1864 Science by Lynda Grier and comb their book, nor John Laker in his 1917 (1880-1967). He also children every book on the History of Deal. All assembled lists of old morning and take three appear to have used the same school textbooks, them punctually to sources in their accounts of literary references and school.” !e $rst education in Deal. images. Most items are location of the !ere are two interesting catalogue research notes for a talk school is uncertain, entries, the most likely looking one on education before later it moved to is in the East Kent Archives Centre, 1870. !ere is also a Broad Street and in the other at Canterbury Cathedral short talk on Deal Fig 2 1813 it moved Archive, but as both are currently Charity School, 1792 again to Middle closed, in preparation for the move to 1814, where Stebbing Street, where it to the Kent History Centre and recounts its establishment and early changed its name to the National building works respectively, it has history. Stebbing quotes as his School in 1842. Stebbing gives the not been possible to investigate source a vellum bound ledger with impression of an excellent source further. You don’t realise the value a red label in the centre with the for the study of a local Charity of archives until they are not title ‘Deal Charity School 1792’; this School and the changes in education accessible! It will be exciting to volume was in use until 1814. It over time. Unfortunately, he has investigate further when these included the school’s regulations, a not included information on where archive centres reopen. list of subscribers, and the back of he accessed his sources and neither by Pernille Richards the ledger contains the minutes for sixteen meetings up until, and Canterbury Historical and including, the year 1813. Stebbing Archaeological Society Grants also transcribed minutes taken at Charity School meetings by the Rev. !e Society has limited funds available to award a grant to individuals researching P. Brandon and others from 1802 any aspect of the history and archaeology of Canterbury and its surrounds. It is to 1813. These minutes are envisaged that a grant would not normally exceed £500. described as “Extracts from the small exercise book, inlaid with blotting Preference would be given to work resulting in publication in any media. paper, recording the minutes of the Please apply in writing to the Hon. Sec. of the Grants Committee as soon as Deal Charity School from 1802.” possible, and not later than 30 June 2012. We learn about the rules and routine running of the school. !ere were Your letter should mention: sixteen clauses in all, mostly to do » with management, subscriptions » The nature and length of your research and meetings, but some were » The stage you have reached in your research concerned with the day-to-day » The amount you are applying for running of the school as it impacted » Any additional funding anticipated from other sources on the children and their parents » Your proposals for publication such as uniform, admittance » Your anticipated timetable requirements, and the curriculum. !e curriculum consisted of the You may be asked to name a referee whom the Grants Committee may consult. three Rs, religious instruction and, If successful, you would be expected to account for the money spent and give a for girls, knitting and plain work. copy of any article, pamphlet etc to the Society’s library. A summary of your Head lice and attendance research might be published on the Society’s website. problems appear to be constants in the world of education and one For further details, please contact Mrs C M Short, 3 Little Meadow, Upper regulation states: “!e Parents shall Harbledown, Canterbury CT2 9BD.

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter 5 WHAT’S ON

KAS EVENTS Loose Area History Society KAS Churches Committee Visit Monday 14 May St Mary, Hinxhill & St Gregory ‘Dode Church - a deserted church in the middle of nowhere!’ and St Martin, Wye by Douglas Chapman Saturday 30 June Monday 8 October Guides will be Ian Coulson and Paul Burnham. ‘The Vestry Meeting’ by Dr Jean Stirk

Please meet at 1.45 for 2pm start at Hinxhill (postcode TN25 Monday 12 November 5NR; grid reference TR048 426 (TR0442). We will then move ‘Glenn Miller Lives On’ by John and Sue Pearce on to Wye (postcode TN25 5AL; grid reference TR054 469 (TR0546). Monday 10 December ‘A Country House Christmas’ by Pat Mortlock Cost of the visits is £5, to include tea and biscuits at Wye Heritage Centre, the Latin School in Upper Bridge Street. Meetings start at 7.30pm and will be held at Loose Infant School Hall, Loose Road, Maidstone. Please register by emailing or telephoning the Church Visits Secretary, Jackie Davidson - jacalyn.davidson@btinternet. Further information from our website com or 01634 324004. Please notify Jackie if you need a lift www.looseareahistorysociety.webeden.co.uk from Wye station, pick up time 1.30pm. or phone 01622 741198. On Saturday 22 September we will be visiting the Sikh Temple in Gravesend. Full details in the next Newsletter. and District Archaeological Society (ODAS) annual Open Weekend KAS Place-Names Committee of Scadbury Manor 2012 Place-Names Study Day Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September 2.00 – Saturday 3 November 4.30pm (last entry). Admission free.

Following the hugely successful 2010 Study Day, another will Visitors can follow a self-guided trail around the moated take place this year in November at the Visitor Centre, manor site, see ODAS’ excavations, and explore the Rochester. foundations of the Tudor kitchens and Great Hall to see how Speakers will be Dr Richard Jones, Ms Liz Finn and Dr Paul they would have been used when the house was owned by the Cullen. Walsingham family. It’s also possible to see the World War II defences, and a restored shepherd’s or gamekeeper’s hut Further details of times, titles of the talks and ticket price will which belonged to the estate in the 19th century. follow in the July Newsletter. Refreshments, bookstall and exhibition about the history of Contact will be Hon. Sec. Place-Names Committee, Val Scadbury. WC on site. Barrand Davies, email: [email protected] tel: 07947 583327. Access is from the public footpath around the estate. The entrance to the site is where the footpath passes the moated EVENTS AROUND KENT site. The nearest access from the road is along the footpath at 14 St Paul’s Wood Hill; turn left along the circular footpath, 5 The Wye Rural Museum Trust & Wye Historical mins walk. From Old Perry Street car park, the entrance is Society Second Nightingale Memorial Lecture around 30 mins walk along the footpath. There is some limited parking at the site for elderly/disabled visitors: apply ‘Why Medieval Peasants were Important’ by with SAE to ODAS, 28 Church Avenue, Sidcup, DA14 6BU. Professor Christopher Dyer (University of Leicester) For more information about ODAS and Scadbury see www.odas.org.uk. Friday 11 May at 7.30 pm Lady Joanna Thornhill (Endowed) Primary School, Bridge Street, Wye TN25 5EA Canterbury Christ Church University Short course at Salomons, near Admission is free, by notifying in advance Dr Tom Hill, Tunbridge Wells Whittington, Selling Road, Old Wives Lees, Canterbury CT4 8BH; email: [email protected].

6 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk WHAT’S ON

Local History: Starting and Moving On your own Olympic board game and victory wreath, and win Starts Tuesday 24 April, 10.30 to 12.30 your Olympic purple ribbon. Sessions at 10.30pm and 2.00pm, approx 2 hours long. More details from Dr Gill Draper, on 01732 452575 or For 5-12 year olds - BOOKING REQUIRED! Telephone 020 [email protected] or www.canterbury.ac.uk/community- 8460 1442 or email [email protected]. arts-education. Children MUST be accompanied, accompanying adult free. Entry £4 per child. The Romney Marsh Research Trust Study Day July event - Family Roman Villa Fun ‘Agricultural Transformations and the Marsh’ Wednesday 25 and Friday 27 July led by Dr Hadrian Cook, Kingston University Guided talk of the villa house for adults, while children have Saturday 12 May an activity session with Roman artefacts and dressing up as Romans. Do the villa quiz and win special villa badges and Provisional programme includes three lectures in the morning and visits to two farms in the afternoon by coach. Based at For all the family, children to be accompanied - sessions at Udimore St Mary’s Community Hall (Udimore, Rye TN31 6BB) 10.30am and 2.00pm. Sessions approx 1½ hours. from 10:15am (doors open 9:45am for tea/coffee). Lunch can be taken in a local pub or ‘bring your own’. No booking required - just turn up. Normal entry prices. Booking form and tickets, which will cost no more than £20, EVENTS ELSEWHERE to include all lectures, transport and tea/coffee but not lunch, will be available from the RMRT Treasurer, David Williams on Council for British Archaeology South East [email protected]. Conference - Marking Past Landscapes Dorking Christian Centre, Dorking Saturday 13 October Society for Clay Pipe Research Conference Vine Baptist Church Hall, Park Lane, AGM 12.15 – 12.45. Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 3UP Conference 2-5pm. Programme and prices to follow. 15-16 September

The Saturday programme of lectures will focus on the Kent Can you help with research clay tobacco pipe industry and will be complemented by into ‘galleting’? displays. In the evening there will be the optional conference dinner at a local restaurant. A visit to a local historical Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, is conducting attraction is to follow on the Sunday morning. Non-members research into galleting - the practice of inserting small of the Society will be very welcome to attend. pieces of stone or oyster shells into mortar joints. This has been a traditional form of construction for many centuries, Further information is available on the Society website especially in the south east of England. The practice is quite (http://scpr.co) or from Brian Boyden (email: brian.boyden@ common in Kent, so the KAS Historic Buildings Committee dsl.pipex.com) or Chris Jarrett (email: cjarrett@pre-construct. has offered to assist by recording Kentish examples. com). Have you seen a building with pieces of stone, brick, oyster shell or similar incorporated into the masonry joints? Crofton Roman Villa Could you supply general and close-up photographs of Open from 1st April - 2nd November every galleted buildings with details of age (date or century) and Wednesday, Friday, Bank Holiday Monday and original purpose when built? Could you offer location details for galleted buildings, (last admission 4.30pm) stating the material and its construction? Easter Holiday Events – The Ancient Olympic If you are willing to help with this recording, please contact Games - Wednesdays 4th and 11th April Colin Arnott ([email protected]) requesting Explore the history of the ancient Olympic Games. Make the ‘galleting questionnaire’.

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter 7 YOU & YOUR SOCIETY

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS subjects, including branding. One of the $rst tasks will be to review Most of the subscriptions have now Mr J Osbourne, Hythe the Society website and create some been paid but there are a few still Ms M Saunderson, Hythe new front pages. !e website has outstanding – reminder letters have Miss H-M Razzak, Burnham* been very successful, but all those been sent, so if you have received Mr D Townsend, Canterbury involved, both Officers and Mr & Mrs N Wilkinson, Faversham volunteers, agree that it is time cheque to me as soon as possible. * Student members to redesign it and exploit Please remember to send any more fully the potential of The majority of new members have changes of addresses etc. to me the Internet. joined by downloading the either by post or email: It was also agreed by Council that application form from the website [email protected] a new committee should be but it is equally important that established to focus on Community I look forward to your continued blue application forms are History and Archaeology, the largest support of our splendid Society. available in other locations and growth area in British archaeology taken to conferences etc. Please over the last decade. This I am very pleased to welcome the contact me if you would like a following new members: Community Committee will meet bundle. in late summer to begin the work Dr G & Mrs Bradley, Brook, Ashford of encouraging more participation Mrs M A Brown, Sevenoaks Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, in ‘doing history and archaeology’. Mrs S M Burt, Tonbridge Kent TN11 9HD telephone: 01732 President Ian Coulson has stressed Miss J Clarke, Tunbridge Wells* 838698, email as above. the importance of encouraging Mr M Crittenden, Gillingham participation at all levels and the Mr I Davidson, Chartham, Canterbury Committee will look at how this can best be done across the county. The Council is also very supportive of a new strategy to develop expert groups of members. REVISION OF ARCHAEOLOGIA !e intention is to o"er training in CANTIANA FOR SALE THE COMMITTEE specialist areas such as surveying STRUCTURE and $nds work so that members can contribute to projects in the county. Set of Arch Cant from 1930 EVERy FOUR yEARS to 2011, with the exception of !is initiative is in its early stages 1998 (including indexes, THE COUNCIL MEETS TO but the work by the Hon. Curator in total 86 books). REVIEW THE WORK OF in Sittingbourne and Folkestone has THE KAS COMMITTEES AT shown that trained volunteers can All in good condition, although the A SPECIAL MEETING. make an enormous contribution to six earliest have faded covers. They archaeology on site and in post are offered to any KAS member who !is year the meeting in January excavation work. would like them, but need to be created one new committee and collected from Dover. changed the remit of the Membership Committee to be There is no charge, but a donation replaced as the Communications to the Pilgrims Hospice would be Committee. !e Communications much appreciated. Committee has a broader brief, to Please contact James R White on coordinate membership matters, 07702 155333 (best contact websites, social networking, number) or on 01304 216146. newsletters, public relations, publicity and any other appropriate

8 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk COMMITTEE ROUND UP

KAS HISTORIC KAS INDUSTRIAL KAS BUILDINGS ARCHAEOLOGY PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE The 2012 Autumn Historic !e 2013 South Eastern Industrial !e Committee continue to seek Buildings Conference is to be held Archaeology Conference will be and approve primary sources to be on Saturday, 20 October in held at Dartford Grammar School placed on the Society’s website, Harrietsham Village Hall. !is on 27 April 2013. At the moment having currently agreed to include year’s theme is ‘Urban Buildings’. we are still $nalising the speakers the 1523 Lay Subsidy for Kent. More details will be published in but topics to be covered will include A major purpose of the biennial the next issue of the Newsletter. the following:- !e Gunpowder Hasted Prize continues to be !e chance to visit areas of Knole Industry in Kent, !e Kentish realised: Celia Cordle’s book Out not normally open to the public was Motorcycle Industry, Cement of the Hay and Into the Hops (2007 announced in the last issue of the Manufacture in the County, Prize) was published by the Newsletter. !is visit, on 1 May, J & E Hall Dartford and Aircraft University of Hertfordshire Press in proved to be popular, and has been Restoration. hardback and paperback; Toby over-subscribed. Mike Clinch has Further details will be available Huitson’s (2009 Prize) study of therefore allocated places to those on the Society’s website as the church architecture is in press; and members who put in their programme becomes $nalised. the 2011 Prize was awarded to Dr applications $rst. If you are interested in joining Alison Klevnäs for her Cambridge Following very positive feedback the Committee or have suggestions PhD on grave robbery in east Kent. on the Workshop Day on Building for the Conference please contact A number of grants from Interpretation and Recording held Mike Clinch either by email the Allen Grove and the Kent at the Agricultural Museum in [email protected] or phone History Fund have helped assist Brook last September, the 01322 526425. research and publication of local Committee is investigating history studies. the possibility of organising a similar event with the Wye Rural Museum Trust. By Angela Davis.

HAVE yOU JUST JOINED THE SOCIETy? Do you wish you could collect all the back issues of Archaeologia Cantiana? Now you can have 125 volumes of Archaeologia Cantiana at the amazingly low cost of £31 for individual members and £76 for institutional members on the KAS Sesquicentennial DVD. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––------To order your copy, send a cheque payable to Kent Archaeological Society to Peter Tann, 42 Archery Square, Walmer, Deal CT14 7HP.

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter 9 Report on the Later Medieval Kent Conference by Diane Heath, University of Kent

he ‘Later Medieval Kent’ the castles of Kent, it was accompanied terms of a dozen di"erent orders but conference, held in December by a thoughtful bibliography. in terms of the size of these 2011 at the University of Kent, !e $rst on the Economy was given establishments, and were spread fairly TCanterbury, was a suitable ornament by Dr Gillian Draper entitled: ‘Tinker, evenly throughout Kent. However, for the eponymous book, edited by Tailor, Merchant, Sailor: Trades and there was some natural concentration Sheila Sweetinburgh, for its audience Occupations in a Maritime County’, in and around Canterbury, and it must numbered over a hundred, a telling where she examined the evidence for be noted that elsewhere too, the indication of the subject’s popularity. the geographical spread of trades based foundations of smaller houses were In the first panel Dr David on local records. For example, possibly due to the in#uence of larger Grummitt, under the title: ‘The carpenters in the New Romney area ones nearby, including cells granted Kentish Aristocracy in the Later could be land-based or ship-based. !e independence, such as the Cluniac Middle Ages: a County Community?’ wide variety of sources also reveals the establishment at Monks Horton. !is discussed whether there was a sense of use of by-names which, before the paper served as an excellent foil and ‘county community’ among knights, thirteenth century, generally accurately background to its partner, for Dr Rob esquires and ‘parish gentry’ of Kent related to occupations, and thereafter Lutton concentrated not on the during this late medieval period. Could sources such as the Lay Subsidy records monastic but on parish faith. a county community be said to exist are very useful. To sum up, Dr Draper’s Dr Lutton spoke on ‘The when there are three distinctly negative expertise in examining local medieval Dissemination of the Jesus Mass in factors present: the wide disparity in records is clearly immense from the Kent, c.1460-c.1540’. Devotion to the the circumstances of Kent gentry; the many examples she provided, but her Holy Name of Christ became an sheer size of the county and thirdly; its lightness of touch ensured her paper important cult from the $fteenth varied topography? Having taken his was a delight to hear. century onwards in England. audience through these three themes Next Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh Proselytized by prelates, and Richard he maintained that, although less considered ‘Agricultural Practices in Rolle, its intense focus on Christ is hierarchical and elite by the beginning the Medieval Kentish Marshlands’, clearly something that commented of the sixteenth century, ties of kinship beginning with the factors that have upon Lollardy. It involved were still important in engendering a influenced farming including contemplation and repetition of Jesus’s sense of county community. topography, the position of market name and votive masses, and grew via !e second paper in this panel was towns, the proximity to London, the foundation of fraternities for lights, given by Richard Eales on ‘Castles and patterns of seigneurial ownership and altars and masses in parish churches Politics in Late Medieval Kent’ in the vital role of the peasantry. She then and the provisioning of these items in which he explored castles and castle turned to two case studies, $rstly the parishioners’ wills. !us the growth of historiography. Debate has raged in the Kentish marshlands from 1250 and the cult may be ascertained by church new discipline of castle studies over the secondly, $fteenth century Monkton, records and testamentary evidence. meaning and purpose of castles. For, before concluding that much work has Having provided a brief overview of as Richard pointed out, the real interest been done on Kent gentry but there is the geographical spread of the cult in in castles lies in how much they embody a lot more to be gleaned from England, he explored several Kentish medieval life and how much they are, documentary and archaeological case studies and $nished with some as he phrased it, ‘intimately bound up evidence to form a clearer tentative conclusions. with change’; that is, not only social picture of Kent peasants and their Sheila Sweetinburgh opened the and military changes over time but also agricultural practices. $nal session on the Town under the alterations in political status and the After lunch the session on the heading ‘!e Use and Abuse of Urban king’s power. Certain themes run Church began with a paper by Dr Spaces in Late Medieval Kent’, through the history of Kent and its Elizabeth Edwards on ‘The Smaller adopting a microhistory approach to castles and it is this rich mixture which Monastic Houses of Late Medieval investigate an event. On 24th August, makes Kent so fascinating to study. Kent’. In the period 1220 to 1540, 1532 the curate of a chantry and three Even though this was a swift tour of Kentish monasteries varied not only in churchwardens were arrested, according

10 Spring 2012- KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Report on the Later Medieval Kent Conference to the Old Red Book of Sandwich. Not !e $nal paper was gven by Sarah according to size, the status of the town a ‘hold the front-page’ event perhaps, Pearson on ‘Townhouses: Layout and and the necessities of the work by Diane Heath, University of Kent but in Sheila’s excellent paper this ‘small Usage in Late Medieval Kent’ which undertaken by townspeople. nugget’ of a report allowed; an discussed the physical ambience of life Nevertheless the audience was provided examination of the use and abuse of in Kent towns, where there are su&cient with a fascinating overview of the urban space; a reflection on the medieval survivals, which meant she subject and afterwards questioning repercussions of transgression and; a focused on Canterbury, Sandwich and focused on heating open halls broadening out of the analysis Faversham. In the late medieval period and shops. to discuss the negotiation of the there was not an especially Kentish A longer, full report on the political in late medieval northern form of housing, so the buildings are conference can be found European society. fairly standard. However, they di"ered on www.kentarchaeology.org

NEW BOOKS

!e British Association for Local History has two new Guides available. Individual copies are £4.99 but a special o"er is being given for local and county societies, record o&ces, museums, etc, of ten copies for £40 including P&P. Go to www.balh.co.uk to access this o"er.

Living The Poor Life - A Guide to the Poor Law Union Correspondence, c.1834 to 1871, held at The National Archives By Paul Carter & Natalie Whistance

Internet Sites for Local Historians New revised edition Compiled by Jacquelene Fillmore, edited by Alan G Crosby

The Discovery and Excavation of the Roman Shore-Fort at Dover By Brian Philp

!is new publication deals with the discovery of the long-lost shore-fort of , listed in the Roman Notitia Dignitatum. Published as No.11 in the Kent Monograph Series, it covers the discovery of over 200 metres of the forti$ed walls of the massive fort, seven of its large bastions, the great defensive ditch, the rampart bank and much of the internal area. !e latter contained the military bath-house, originally constructed by the Classis Britannica, and the East Building, an extension of the Roman Painted House. Nearby was a deep terrace containing a unique collection of huts, or pens.

Finds from the site include two important Roman altars, a statue, two stone heads and a collection of rare gemstones, the $nest of which shows a gladiatorial scene. Over 500 Roman coins are listed and analysed. !e volume is in a rigid case-bound A4 format, with 180 pages and over 40 coloured plates.

Price £24, plus £5 P&P (or can be collected from order address). Cheques payable to Kent Arch. Rescue Unit, sent to: Roman Painted House, New Street, Dover CT17 9AJ.

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Sping 2012 - KAS Newsletter 11 Eccles villa - aerial photo of 1962 whilst excavations were underway

Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group – the early years by Michael Ocock

t is $fty years since the Lower of $eld walking and documentary building, and the site’s potential interest Medway Archaeological Research research, produced results within a few to late Roman studies, a full and $nal Group held its AGM at the end of months. Areas of interest were report could prove to be una"ordable. Ia very successful $rst year, during which identi$ed by plotting recorded $nds !e Group grew from strength to members compiled a comprehensive and observations made throughout the strength throughout its early years, sites and monuments record for the lower Medway Valley, the Hoo undertaking and reporting on $eld area and began a programme of local peninsula, the Medway Towns and surveys in a number of localities $eld surveys. !e Group was founded parts of the North Kent marshes. !e including the Hundred of Hoo and by four local amateur archaeologists, Eccles site was located in July 1961 Bredhurst [Arch. Cant. LXXX (1965)]. all of whom had worked on the [Arch. Cant. LXXVI (1961)]. Later Local activities and publicity ensured excavation of the Cobham Roman villa that summer trial trenches revealed the a rising membership taking an active under Peter Tester. !e four original villa’s considerable size which made the part in archaeological work. In the members were Ron Foord of Chatham, case for further exploration, especially 1960s there were few professional a skilled photographer of #ora and since the villa was vulnerable to nearby resources to hand, and local groups, of fauna and long-time member of the industrial development, the building which Kent was fortunate to have the Society, [Obituary, Arch. Cant. CXXII of which, in 1966, uncovered a largest number in Britain, carried a (2002)], a retired shipwright, a City substantial Roman kiln for the bulk considerable burden, voluntarily worker and amateur musician, and the manufacture and export of roo$ng and undertaking watching-briefs on writer. !e Group concentrated on other tiles. construction sites and pressing forward $eldwork and documentary research, !e photograph shows the Eccles with their e"orts to catalogue local sites looking out for unexpected $nds on villa as seen from the air in 1962 and and chance $nds. !rough fostering building sites in sensitive areas and is one of the second series of aerial close relationships with landowners giving assistance with emergency rescue photographs of the site. It can be seen and keeping members’ contacts excavations wherever possible. that a portion of the $eld has been informed as what to out look for, An early success for the $eld survey given over to that year’s programme of several sites were prevented from being project was the discovery of the Eccles excavations by the Group. !e project buried or destroyed without record. In Roman villa through aerial photography, was subsequently taken over by the late 1963 the Group was instrumental in which resulted in an article in the Times Alec Detsicas’s Eccles Excavation bringing experts from the Natural and several local newspapers. !e aerial Committee and continued until 1976. History Museum to Cuxton to surveys, complemented by a programme Despite the size and status of the investigate following the chance $nd

12 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Eccles villa - aerial photo of 1962 whilst excavations were underway of a handaxe, which had revealed the of the South Eastern Gas Board. [Arch. in $eldwork and other branches of existence of an important and largely Cant. LXXXII (1967)] archaeological research, thus enabling undisturbed Palaeolithic site [Arch The Group, working alongside organisations like the Lower Medway Cant. LXXX (1965)]. At Broomhey similar societies throughout the county, Group and other active local groups Farm, Cooling, the landowner’s made a valuable contribution to to conduct the majority of investigations of a pottery kiln, begun Kentish archaeology at a time when archaeological activity in Kent in the 1930s, were $nally taken forward the idea of a County Archaeologist’s throughout the 1960s. through extensive excavations by Alec Department working with commercial Miles and Mike Syddell and reported archaeological units had not occurred For enquiries about membership of in full in Arch Cant. CXXIV (2004). to anyone, funding for ‘rescue’ LMARG please contact their Hon Sec, Rescue excavations were not ruled out excavations was virtually non-existent, Len Feist, tel. 01634 717135. entirely and the Group carried out the and amateur groups were consequently $rst extensive excavations of the Roman encouraged to be active and villa on the site of a demolished gas independent. Fortunately many works at Snodland at the instigation volunteers participated enthusiastically

Lower Medway Archaeological North Side of Luddenham Church in 1803 (kind permssion of KAS) Research Group – the early years INSERT : Same view of Luddenham Church today by Michael Ocock

The Lost Tower of Luddenham Dr Pat Reid, Community Archaeologist for the Faversham Society, Director FSARG

n 2011 the Faversham Society damaging the nave and chancel. season were spent carrying out Archaeological Research Group Repairs were swiftly carried out but the surveying, including detailed building (FSARG) were invited to $nd the north tower was not restored. Instead, materials recording, mapping of the Iremains of the north tower of a battlemented brick tower was built churchyard and graves, inspecting Luddenham Church, near Faversham. onto the south west corner of the nave. debris from rabbit holes and dumps !is tower was a substantial structure We had $ve days access to the and geo-resistivity surveying along the with a double cap and three bells and churchyard, so this was a ‘Time Team- north wall. !is last gave such a clear stood half way along the north side of type’ exercise and we had to be highly result that we knew solid foundations the church. It collapsed in 1806, organised. Two days during the Easter had survived.

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter 13 The Lost Tower of Luddenham - continued

Sure enough, when we returned in June, the walls proved to be no more than 10cm down. Working rapidly, much of the wall was exposed. !e Roman brick used in the north and south west corners of the church walls were around 0.9 m thick and survived to a maximum height of 0.6 m. !ey were mainly constructed of large, shaped #int nodules and blocks of ragstone and greensand, but the internal $ll included many hefty pieces of Roman tile. Indeed, the west wall seemed to be founded upon a layer of Roman brick and tile and the $ll between the walls contained pieces of roller stamped (type14) and combed box #ue tiles and a very large #oor tile, probably a sesquipedalis, along with tegulae and imbrices. !e top layer of $ll had a high proportion of peg tile fragments. Other signi$cant $nds in the $ll were a number of yellow or green glazed Flemish tiles, late medieval/early post- medieval in date. It has been suggested that Luddenham church, remote and with a small congregation, might have had earthen #oors in the medieval period but this was plainly not so for at least some areas. Some pieces of earlier medieval tile were also found. At the lowest foundation level of the tower, a complex multi-context layer emerged, interpreted as an artisans’ ‘working #oor’. Beneath the lowest level of demolition $ll was a patchy layer of charcoal, running in places over a hard white layer of chalky-mortar like material. !ere were also lenses of greenish clay. !ree small post holes in a row penetrated the charcoal/white layers, and a larger one lay a short distance away. In one part of this ‘surface’ a circular impression seemed to have been impressed into the white

layer. Immediately beneath this mixture of deposits was the natural soil, a clayey-brickearth. !e white layer surface, dating back to when the tower down to the natural soil? !e cames contained a lot of lead came fragments was being built? !e post holes could could then be attributed to smashed - cames are the $ne lead strips which be sca"olding and the cames from windows - the 1803 print shows some run between glass segments in stained window construction and trimming. small windows. Careful inspection, glass windows. Or was it a post-collapse #oor - in however, suggested that the burnt layer !e di&culty with the ‘working which case, the tower site must have did not run under the foundations and #oor’ was dating it. Was it an original been completely cleared of rubble, right that the very lowest stone showed some

14 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk The Lost Tower of Luddenham - continued

Dressed stones at the corner of the buttress

sign of scorching, which gives the the pillars of nearby Davington Church. charming and peaceful little church, dating as post-collapse. Davington Church was formerly a huddled in amongst farm buildings. !e Roman material was easy to priory and much was demolished at Meanwhile, if you want to know more explain - a known but uninvestigated the Reformation - and Davington, about the investigation itself, go to the high status Roman villa lies nearby. from time to time, seems to have shared FSARG website (now revised) on www. More puzzling, however, were two a priest with Luddenham. community-archeology.org.uk. Great blocks of chamfered stone at the corners On the middle day of our June thanks go to Tim and Caroline Stevens of the buttress in the north east corner excavation, Luddenham Church, which of Luddenham Court and the Churches of the tower. !ese are far more $nely is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust for granting access worked than other stone in the church Conservation Trust, had its annual to this very special site. but were used in an obscure place. Is open day. We put up a small exhibition this another case of recycling, this time and display of $nds - all very enjoyable of medieval material? !ese blocks are for both us and the visitors. I would identical to chamfered blocks used in strongly recommend a visit to this

The opened up area at the end of excavation

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk - Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter 15 Country’s fourth largest Bronze age hoard found in the County By Jennifer JaCkson, finds liaison offiCer for kent

ore than 350 Late Bronze where they were studied by a team 3,000 years ago. It would represent a Age objects, found in a $eld of researchers who prepared a report signi$cant addition to our collection in the Boughton Malherbe for the coroner. and make an excellent tool to illustrate Marea near Maidstone, have been Maidstone Museum would like to the activities of Kentish folk in the o&cially named as Treasure. have the $nds for its collections, so the Bronze Age.” !e collection of tools, weapons, market value of the items will have to Dr. Ben Roberts, Curator of ornaments and ingots, found by two be determined by the independent European Bronze Age, British Museum metal detector enthusiasts, are thought Treasure Valuation Committee. !e said “!is is a spectacular $nd of a vast to be from 875-800BC. !e hoard is museum will then have to raise this Bronze Age hoard. What is perhaps particularly unusual because the objects sum to acquire the hoard. Collections most interesting is that these objects are thought to have originated in north- Manager from Maidstone Museum are far more common in northern west and northern France, but then Giles Guthrie said: “!ere are a number France than south-east England. Several been brought to England and later of hoards of this period known about have never even been found in England buried in Kent. from south-east England and north- before.” !e $nds were reported to KCC’s western France, but this discovery helps Heritage Conservation Team and taken to highlight the massive resources that to the British Museum in London, were at the disposal of these people

If undelivered, please return to The editor wishes to draw attention to the fact that EDITOR: LYN PALMER neither she nor the Council of the KAS are answerable 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9HD for opinions which contributors may express in their Telephone: 01892 533661 signed articles; each author is alone responsible for Email: [email protected] Copy deadline for the next issue is 1st June 2012 the contents and substance of their work.

16 Spring 2012 - KAS Newsletter - www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Published by the Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Gallery, St Faith’s Street, Maidstone, Kent. ME14 1LH.