Event : The Brennan Torpedo Launch, Cliffe Fort, Kent

brennan torpedo

Installed in the late 19th century, the Cliffe Fort torpedo installation is one of only seven that were built in England (fifteen were planned). Yet the superstructure of this fascinating invention is now extremely eroded and in desperate need of recording. The very end of the concrete slipway has been lost to the Thames and many of its iron running rails lay in the shallows. The riverbank behind each side of the concrete slipway has also been eroded away leaving the structure fragile, cracked and exposed.

On 16 – 18th September CITiZAN South East will be delivering a free evening training session and running two sessions on site to record as much of the torpedo launch as possible. We’ll be drawing a measured plan of the site, exploring the stratigraphy of the visible construction cuts at either side and the wider foreshore to the east and west. We’ll also begin the process of creating a 3D model of the structure as well as updating CITiZAN app entries for the wreck of the Hans Egede and many other nearby features.

For details about these activities please visit the CITiZAN website by clicking here.

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CLD update

This week we will be out tree surveying – weather permitting – on Wednesday and Thursday.

The week after we’ll prep the cottage site for the 2 week dig in Cobham Woods.

The dig starts on Saturday the 23rd, when we will be joined by the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club. It then continues until Friday the 29th of July. On Saturday the 30th Sophie and I will be at Maidstone Museum for their Festival of Archaeology Event, so do visit us http://www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/events/2520
 
The dig starts again on Sunday the 31st of July and runs until Saturday the 6th of August…all weather willing! The site is open to visitors on all days!
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Summer dig 2016: update on dates

Our annual excavation for this year will now take place from Saturday 23rd July to Saturday 6th August, excluding Saturday 30th June. We will be excavating one of the lost cottages of the Cobham estate, in Cobham Woods.

Places will be limited to a maximum of 20 volunteers a day (The 23rd is a setup day and we will have YACs on site, so a maximum of 10 spaces).

If this sounds of interest, do let me know what days you can make:

Weekend 23rd/24th Week days 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th Sunday 31st (July). Week days 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and last day Saturday 6th (August).

 

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Pottery workshops

Pottery workshops with Nigel Macpherson Grant were held this week at the National Trust South Lodge Barn in Cobham.  They were funded by the Kent Archaeological Society.

Pottery day 2

Pottery excavated from the site of Randall Manor was laid out in sequence and showed the variety of material retrieved from the site. Dates range from c. AD1150 to the demolition of the site in AD1580 and indicate continual occupation of the site over this period.  Fabric samples were also available for inspection. Andrew Mayfield is working with Nigel to bring details of the pottery assemblage into publication.

Out thanks to Nigel for giving his time and energy to this project.

Pottery day 1 Pottery day 3

 

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Churches Conference September 2016

The Society for Church Archaeology Conference has been announced.

The 2016 Conference will be held in Canterbury on Sept 2nd-4th, 2016, on the subject of ‘Church and Industry’. The conference will be held at Canterbury Christ Church University, and will focus on the association of industrial activity with major monastic institutions from the early medieval to early modern period. This conference will bring together an assorted range of talks, revealing new discoveries being made on industry in ecclesiastical contexts and introducing some of the fascinating insights emerging from projects around the country. Tours of the cathedral’s drawing office and stonemasons’ workshop, as well as to local churches and monastic sites, will also feature.

 Gabor Thomas, Power, technology and production at Anglo-Saxon Lyminge Kent

 Nancy Holinrake, Pre-Conquest industrial activity at two Somerset monasteries: Glastonbury and Carhampton

 Cecily Spall, ‘To make things is to do well’: the prehistoric inheritance of the Portmahomack monastic workshops

 Hugh Willmott, Glassmaking in the Saxon monastery, Glastonbury, Barking and beyond

 Jenny Alexander, From Cathedral Workshops to Country House Building Sites: how did stonemasons cope in the Early-Modern period?

 Martin Biddle, Canterbury Cathedral archaeologist: a retrospective

For more details please go to the Society for Church Archaeology website.

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