Andrew will be trying to arrange two free finds conservation workshops with Dana Goodburn-Brown, courtesy of a Kent Archaeological Society Grant. These are small group sessions, so register your interest now! More details to follow.
Likewise we have a number of free pottery workshops pencilled in for March 2016, with our dear friend Nigel Macpherson Grant…again more details to follow!
In the spring of 2015 the Heritage Lottery gave Kent County Council funding for the Woodland Wildlife Hidden Histories Project. This enabled community archaeology to be undertaken at Rose Hill, Sittingbourne. Those involved included Grove Park Primary School, the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club, the Historic Research Group Sittingbourne and Shorne Woods Archaeology Group.
As part of the Project an initial two evaluation days looked at garden features and identified the walled garden at the house site along with a number of outbuildings. Initial excavation work was also carried out on a substantial outbuilding at the rear of the house. By the end of this day the YACs confirmed that part of the brick floor remained intact. Finds recovered included pottery and metal objects covering a chronology from c.1800 AD to the late 20th century.
From the 15th to the 18th June the Project performed further excavations. By the end of the period a number of phases had been established for the buildings – from a laid brick floor to concrete skimmed yard probably used as a garage for storage. Finds included bricks, metalwork, pottery, bone, shell, tiles and worked flint.
For more detail on the social history of the house at Rose Hill click here.
Bibliography:
Medieval Canterbury was internationally important as the site of St Thomas’ shrine, and was on the main highway between London and mainland Europe. It is an ideal setting for a weekend programme of lectures and guided visits that showcase recent research on the middle ages which will be readily accessible to all. Events over the weekend cover topics including:
Visit the Canterbury Christ Church University website for details.
On Thursday 26th we will be going to Keycol to help another local group – the Newington Group – weigh and count the Roman pottery assemblage uncovered during our work on the site. We will be applying for funding to have this assemblage looked at by a Roman pottery specialist in 2016.
Finally, we have submitted a proposal for a new Lottery project looking at the landscape around Cobham. This would run from 2016-2018 if we get the grant! The Lottery have received our application and told us that it will go forward for final consideration at the end of January 2016. Please keep everything crossed!
One of the most well-known collections in the Historic England Archive, the Architectural Reed Box Collection, has now been scanned and made available online.
The collection consists of over 600,000 photographic prints taken of cities, towns and villages around England, attached to cards housed in red boxes. You can now browse this fantastic collection on the England’s Places website – http://historicengland.org.uk/
The National Buildings Record (NBR) started the Architectural Red Box Collection in 1941 to document our built heritage, especially those buildings threatened or damaged by bombing during the Second World War. The initial core collection came from photographic records collected by Courtauld Institute of Art in the 1930s. Over the following years hundreds of thousands were added, including photography taken for the NBR, and other collections acquired from both commercial and amateur photographers. The collection was closed to new material in 1991.
