KAS Committee Round-Up
Publications Committee
The Committee last met on Saturday 9 October and will next meet on Saturday 22 January 2005. As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Society in 2007, it is proposed to digitize all volumes of Archaeologia Cantiana and the publication of a special volume of Archaeologia Cantiana is also being considered.
The Historical Atlas of Kent has now been published, all paid-up members of the Society being entitled to one free copy. This is a high-quality volume, meriting wide consultation. Its compilation, involving many contributors, has been a complex undertaking, expertly managed by its joint editors, Mr. Terry Lawson, the Society’s Honorary Editor, and Professor David Killingray.
The Kent Churches Website is progressing, for which the Society has contributed a £2000 start-up grant. The proposed site will be extensive, including plans, photographs, and other diverse material relating to the parish churches of Kent.
Finally, a stand-alone 10-minute digital presentation of The Whitefriars Story is planned to tour the Whitefriars Centre snack bars and restaurants in the spring of 2005. So if you missed the excavations the first time around, or want to relive it all again, you can see the highlights in the warm – and over a coffee!
Marion Green
Hon Secretary
Education Committee
The Education Committee’s autumn meeting had a full agenda and members heard about a variety of current activities in both formal and informal education.
The Society has contributed £300 towards the work of North Downs Young Archaeologists Club whose members are enjoying a season of Archaeology and Geology with a ‘Revealing Rocks’ trip to Swalcliffe and ‘Chemical Capers’ experiments with soils and materials at their base in Maidstone Museum; many other engaging events are planned for coming meetings.
There was much discussion about the proposed Archaeological Resource Centre for Kent and its functions.
Canterbury Archaeological Trust has been awarded an HLF grant for its ‘CAT Kits’ project, to build cases of finds and support materials for all 57 schools in the Canterbury, Herne Bay, and Whitstable district. CAT is partnering Canterbury Christ Church University College on the Dakini project, to produce GIS materials for use in secondary schools in Kent, Sussex, and Northern France. The Christ Church team are currently focusing on archives of Canterbury sites and expect to be examining other key Kent sites at a later phase in the project.
Fieldwork Committee
At the October meeting, Steve Willis joined the Committee.
Resistivity Survey
In August, Brian and Carole McNaughton carried out a resistivity survey at Chevening Park, nr Sevenoaks. The survey was requested by Kristina Taylor who is doing some research work there. Using the Society’s newly acquired ‘TR/CIA Meter’, they located the base of a bastion and wall, both of which had been demolished in the 1760s. They were taken down to make way for a ha-ha boundary wall.
Excavation and Recording
With regard to our future excavation and recording plans, the Roman Villa at Folkestone was considered at the October meeting. Part of this site has already slipped into the sea. While much of the site has been dug, there are still some areas that have not been examined. For archaeological purposes, part of the site has been scheduled by English Heritage.
David Bacchus
Membership Committee
At the KAS Christmas Lunch, grace was said in Anglo-Saxon by Saxon speaker Karl Wittwer. This delighted the 75 members who were already in anticipation of an entertaining day. After the festive meal in the Great Hall at Wye College, members were entertained by Michael Gandy, a well-known genealogist, who illustrated in words and song what music hall entertainment reveals about Victorian and Edwardian life. His wit and rendering of the songs earned him the tremendous applause he deserved. So popular was the invitation to view Ian Coulson’s Jacobean Grade 2* listed house that Dr. Burnham assisted by taking alternate parties to view the older rooms of the College. Tea and biscuits back in the Hall concluded a very satisfying day.
Margaret Lawrence
(Chair)
Reformation in 1536, the chapel was in the private ownership of the owners of Milgate Park until 1966, when it was restored to the legal ownership of the church.
In contrast, St Mary the Virgin, Thurnham is one of the ancient settlements along the trackway near the spring-line below the North Downs. Mike Perring, whom members may know from the KAS Library, presented the church’s history from Norman times. He told us how the now-demolished church of St Peter’s at Aldington, only a third of a mile away, was closely linked with St Mary’s. Mr Perring’s wealth of knowledge together with the archive of documents and pictures he displayed provided a valuable insight into the development of the building over the centuries.
The church is close to the site of a Roman villa and there are two motte and bailey castles nearby. The building includes material from the Roman villa and a wide Norman arch that may have been moved from one of the castles. Now blocked as an entrance, the north porch contains an early, undamaged holy water stoup and a 14th century door. The tower also dates from the 14th century. The Norman church is thought to have been of the usual two-cell type with a chancel smaller than the nave. It seems, however, that the nave was extended and the chancel roof raised in the 13th century and lengthened again in the 14th century. Extensive restoration in the 19th century and early 20th century additions has made it more difficult to make a definitive judgement on the architectural history of the church.
On September 18, there was standing room only in Barfreston church as KAS members and their guests listened to a former churchwarden at St Nicholas, Dr Charles Coulson, as he told us about the architectural history of the building. In fact, had the church not been so difficult to find in the lanes of north-east Kent, the audience would have been even larger!
The earlier flint and ragstone church was transformed into what has been described elsewhere as “a gem of Norman architecture” in the third quarter of the twelfth century. It is certainly a gem of Norman sculpture but, as we heard, sculpture was seldom carved in situ and the programme of magnificent decoration was almost certainly not assembled by the masons themselves but by others. Dr Coulson pointed out many examples of where the workmen had to improvise to make the carved stone fit into the programme. He also referred to the much-needed and well-documented restoration by Hussey in the nineteenth century (Arch. Cant. 16).
The fine weather meant that Dr Coulson was able to spend some time on the exterior decoration programme, not least the south doorway with its magnificent tympanum and voussoirs. Hussey and later restorers have left their mark but generally what has been done has been sympathetic and not detracted from the beauty of the building.
Next stop down the windy lanes was Womenswold, or as the church guide calls it Wymynswold, and the church of St Margaret of Antioch. Mr Benn, a member of the congregation, recounted the origins of the village and of the church which had nothing to do with “women” but everything to do with “a forest of active men”! There was an earlier church on the present site and St Margaret of Antioch was popular during the early crusades and so it is reasonable to conclude that there was a church here in the twelfth century, although the present building dates from the thirteenth century.
The church is spacious compared with Barfreston and the population of the surrounding area seems never to have been great. However, Womenswold was linked to Wingham through its collection of canons from 1282. After the Reformation, Womenswold became a chapelry of Nonington. Unlike Barfreston, the interior is quite plain. Indeed, there are neither windows nor a door in the north wall of the nave.
In summary, a most rewarding Saturday afternoon spent in two small communities that were never significantly larger than they are today but with different, although quite distinct, churches. An all-too-tempting selection of delicious cakes accompanied tea served by Womenswold parishioners ensured that all went home satisfied in every sense.
Thanks to Ted Connell, two detailed articles about Barfreston church and one about the nearby church at Patrixbourne are now available in full on the KAS website: http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Libr/Vit&Rec/Intro.htm. The latter includes more illustrations than those appearing in Archaeologia Cantiana 122, and they are in colour.