New Books

St Michael’s Church, East Peckham: Parish and People by Margaret Lawrence

© 906784 60 4. £15.00 (hardback £17.00), 128 pages, 53 col. illus., 33 b/w.
Using sources from every century, the author seeks people of both high and low status whose lives centred around their parish church. How did their beliefs affect their lives, the church building and the community they lived in? The latter part of the book presents the building and its contents, with various authorities on the subject providing detail. The children of the redundant school and the Foundlings who made their homes in the parish are also examined.
Available by post (pp £1.25) from Farmland Church Lane East Peckham TN12 5JJ. Cheque payable to Margaret Lawrence. Proceeds to Church Conservation for the maintenance of St Michael’s Church.

Parish Portraits: Memories of Willington, Otham and Langley collected by Anne Clinch

£8.00.
Photographs and reminiscences of 3 parishes to the east of Maidstone, mostly covering the period from 1940 to the late 1950’s. The amassing of a parish archive, on which this book is based, received the support of the Allen Grove Local History Fund.
Available by post (pp £2.00) from 3 Miners, Upper Street, Leeds ME17 1GZ. Cheque payable to A. Clinch.

Towards a New Stone Age: aspects of the Neolithic in south-east England edited by Jonathan Cotton and David Field

©BA Research Report 137 £28.00. 1027 773 7. 237pp.
A series of regional overviews on such subjects as soils, aerial survey and human remains, with contributions on specific sites, artefacts and the natural environment. Intended as a summary of recent work and a reminder of the richness and diversity of the record available for study in the south-east. 21 diverse subjects range from an examination of Thanet’s oval barrows by Dave Perkins, to an ethnography of prehistoric flint extraction on the South Downs by Pete Topping to Transmanche; l’entente cordiale’ or ‘la vie la difference’ by Ian Kinnes.