Reports of Local Secretaries

( 195 ) THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. THE foUowing notes have been received on local or more general activities : ARCHAEOLOGY IN KENT, 1933. 1. PALEOLITHIC. The Thames gravels at Swanscombe continue to yield a quantity of flint implements of this period. A representative series may be seen in the coUection of Mr. Carter at Rochester. 2. MESOLITHIO. A very proUfic working floor or habitation site of this period has been discovered in a sand-pit at Ivy Hatch, near Ightham. The site is being worked by Mr. G. W. R, Monkton who has coUeeted hundreds of cores and flakes together with a few unmistakable microhths. 3. NEOLITHIC. A pottery spoon discovered many years ago in the vUlage of Ivy Hatch, and now in the possession of Mr. G. W. R. Monkton, has recently been identified as a rare specimen belonging to this period. It is hoped that this wUl be pubUshed fuUy in a forthcoming volume of Archceologia Cantiana. A chipped and partly polished flint axe with the squared sides and other features typical of Danish specimens has been found at Roseacre, Bearsted. 4. BRONZE AGE. A looped bronze axe of palstave form discovered in a garden at Robin Hood Lane, Walderslade, near Chatham in 1931, has been acquired by the Maidstone Museum. A narrow bronze palstave was found on the foreshore in Warden Bay, Sheppey, and is in the possession of Mr. H. E. Richards. The implement is of extreme interest by reason 196 THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. of its exceedingly poor workmanship which is in contrast with the usual perfect finish of Bronze Age implements. It seems almost certain that this Sheppey specimen must represent a trial effort on the part of a Bronze Age workman. 5. EARLY IRON AGE. Excavations were begun at the earthwork known as Bigberry Camp, Harbledown, near Canterbury. The season, though short, was exceedingly successful and the information obtained wiU be of the very greatest importance to Kentish Archaeology. Excavations wiU be continued next year. An extensive lynchet crossed by two ditches has been discovered by Mr. 0. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., on Barham Down, between Canterbury and Dover. A great quantity of pottery of Early Iron Age and type has been found near the ditches. The site should prove one of extreme interest, for its nearness to the coast rendered it Uable to aU the Continental influences at the time of the earUest Iron Age invasions. 6. ROMANO-BRITISH PERIOD. (a) Thurnham. The foundations of a Roman buUding have been discovered on the farm tenanted by Mr. Charles Brown in this parish. Investigations were begun in September and wiU be continued next year. One of the problems involved is whether or not this is the viUa that was discovered in 1833. (b) Buckinge. Groups of burial urns were discovered in the garden of a house caUed " Old Trees," Upper Ruckinge, by Mr. J. E. Glazier. The pottery may be grouped into three classes : 1. About A.D. 50 or even earUer. 2. A.D. 50-150 3. A.D. 150-200 Only finds of pottery were reported, but as their discoverer says that they were found at intervals of about 8 feet, as U planted, one may assume that they were burials. THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. 197 (c) Snodland. A large stone sarcophagus containing a human skeleton was discovered at the works of the Lead Wool Company. This is in part of the old Church Field, a weU-known Roman site, and there can be little doubt that this find belongs to the same period. The skeleton was of great interest from a surgical point of view, and was examined by Sh Arthur Keith and Dr. Gordon Ward. Theh full report appears elsewhere. (d) Byarsh. Five cremated burial groups were found by Mr. Bundy in the foundation trenches for his new house in East Street. The groups aU seem to belong to the middle of the second century. 7. ANGLO-SAXON. Objects from graves excavated at Horton Kirby in 1867 have just been presented to the Maidstone Museum by the Misses Nickalls. These objects are of great importance and it is satisfactory to know that they have at last found theh way into a pubUc museum. NORMAN COOK. REPORT ON THE CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 1933-34. THE membership shows a steady increase ; at the close of 1933 it stood at 175. Owing to the fine seasons of the last two years the summer excursions have been exceedingly popular; 335 members attended the eight excursions in 1933 as against 148 in 1932. An effort is made to relate the winter lectures to the summer outings and so to add to theh educational value. The City CouncU kindly agreed to invite the Hon. Secretary of the C.A.S. to serve ex-officio on the Architectural Advisory Committee of the city, as weU as two other representatives. In view of the Committee's new powers under the. Town Planning Act its work is of great interest and importance. 198 THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. During 1933 many changes in the city entaUed some activity on the part of the C.A.S. The Friars has been transformed by the erection of a large cinema. Some old cottages on the corner have been replaced by new shops which carefuUy reproduce many of the original features. In rebuUding "Marlowe's house" the owners retained as far as possible the old west waU on St. George's Lane. In both these cases some action had of necessity to be taken as the buUdings had become dangerously dilapidated. The Committee have placed a mark-stone in the old waU surrounding the site of Dane John Manor. The debt on the Bastion in Pound Lane has been considerably reduced by various co-operative efforts. The Committee's attempts to insure the repair of St. Peter's Church have met with no success. Theh attention was caUed to an interesting waU painting or map, dating probably from the eighteenth century, at No. 60 St. Peter's Street. The front part of the house, originaUy perhaps the fore-court, now roofed in, is stone-paved and figures upon one fragment suggest that gravestones were cut up to supply the necessary material. The Society is graduaUy forming a smaU Ubrary which is for the present in Mr. Frank Tyler's charge at the office of the Record Branch, K.A.S., in Hawk's Lane. DOROTHY GARDINER. REPORT ON FINDS AND EXCAVATIONS ABOUT SEVENOAKS IN 1933. A SILVER COIN of Aethelbert was found at a depth of 4 feet in the churchyard of Shoreham. It is inscribed with the name of Dudda, an unrecorded moneyer. Further trials were made at Frog Farm, Otford, yielding simUar results to those in previous years—quantities of Romano-British shards with rough flint pavements beneath; no traces of any buUding. A pot of buff-coloured ware was reconstructed by Mr. M. Hovenden and sent to the Sevenoaks Museum. THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. 199 Several local members have been working on the section of the Roman road (London to Lewes) recently explored by the Surrey and Sussex Societies. The Une assigned to the road between Tatsfield and Kent Hatch does not seem sufficiently established. Three trenches were opened across this Une at different points but no traces of road were found. Trials on another route, somewhat to the West, were, however, equaUy unsuccessful. A fresh start wiU be made in the Spring. If the point at the South of this section where the road enters Kent can be definitely ascertained, tracing the remaining mUe or so into Edenbridge wiU present less difficulty. F. GODWIN. DISCOVERIES AT DEAL. THE Deal Waterworks' undertaking is placed on an outlying spur of the North Downs which rises above the 100 feet contour line for a length of about l£ mUes and a width of three-quarters of a mUe. A wide view of the adjacent lowlying country on the N. and W. is obtained from this plateau. In the autumn of 1933 a trench about 10 feet deep was dug through this high land along Waterworks Road for the laying of a sewer. The excavation exposed two sections of V-shaped trenches cut in the chalk and these have been investigated by Mr. CecU Knox. The larger trench has a top width of about 16 feet and a depth of 7 feet. The proving of this trench at other points gives a chcle of about 85 feet. The situation is about 1,000 feet N.W. of the Waterworks. The same trench seems to have been cut through on its southern side at the cross roads in 1908 when laying pipes. No examination of the trenches was made except at the sections exposed by the sewer trench. Little was found in the filling at these points except a few fragments of very friable pottery of early Iron Age type and a mass of slag-Uke material. The smaUer section may be a part of a Bronze Age chcle simUar to the circles found in 1933 near Eynsham, Oxon, figured in the September number of 200 THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. Antiquity and stated by Mr. Crawford to represent the ditches of barrows which have been destroyed by cultivation. F. W. HARDMAN. REPORT ON PLACE NAME WORK DURING THE YEAR 1934. As explained in the last annual report the Place-Name Society's volume on the Place-Names of Kent wiU not appear for several years, and Professor Mawer and his coUeagues wUl not be in a position to begin work on the Kentish material for some time. MeanwhUe, the information which is sent in to the Secretary by local workers, to be recorded, and the number of queries which he is asked to answer, witness that considerable interest continues to be taken in the place-names of the county. FRANK W. JESSUP. REPORT ON FINDS IN NORTH KENT. IN August, 1933, the discovery of a human skuU in Chatham Dockyard was reported to the Society by the County PoUce Authorities, and at the request of Mr. G. C. Druce, I went down to examine it. No definite information about its findspot was avaUable, but the PoUce Inspector pointed out " about where it had come from," and that was at a depth of 10 feet in the river mud, close to the present main stream at Chatham Reach. The skuU, which is incomplete but weUpreserved, is that of a woman with a decidedly round head, and it conforms to a Bronze Age type ; there is nothing in its geological position that is inconsistent with a Bronze Age date, and the occurrence of Bronze Age reUcs in the immediate neighbourhood lends support to this probabUity. The Coroner kindly agreed that the skuU should be presented to the Maidstone Museum. At Dartford Brent, the greater part of a human skeleton was found by men who were laying a gas main. It exhibited THE REPORTS OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. 201 no features that could be regarded as signs of an early date, and the fractured condition of certain rib bones suggested that the remains may have been those of a suicide who was buried in the traditional manner with a stake through his body. At the instance of the PoUce Authorities, I also examined another set of bones found at a depth of 18 inches below the ground in a field between Woodlands Lane and Grange Lane, GiUingham, on the site of a new tavern. The skeleton was fahly complete, and with it was a broken Saxon pot of a usual variety. The grave may have been an isolated one, as no others seem to have been found, and there are no records of simUar discoveries nearby. The Coroner subsequently gave permission for the remains to be moved to the GiUingham Museum. A word of thanks is due to the PoUce Authorities for theh sympathetic handhng of these discoveries which, to them, are necessarUy something of a nuisance. At GiUingham the Officer concerned had made accurate and detaUed notes, and was able to be of very great assistance in my enquiry. R. F. JESSUP.