As a carryover from last week, I thought I would mention very briefly three meetings I was involved in. Firstly, on Monday I had an online meeting of the Lossenham wills group, who are continuing to work on the probate records of people in the 15^th and 16^th-century century who lived in the Rother Levels. Then in the afternoon it was a trustees’ meeting of Brook Rural Museum where amongst other matters we discussed the programme of events for 2025, including the Nightingale Memorial Lecture that is scheduled for Tuesday 23 September: https://brookruralmuseum.org.uk/brook-rural-museum-2025-events/ and will be given by Victoria Stevens (West Dean College), who did her MA by Research at CCCU. Two days later, I met up online with the project manager of the new Maidstone history project and members of the sponsoring organisation. Like the Lossenham wills project, the aim is to work with volunteer researchers to produce a book for those interested in the county’s history, similar to the earlier ‘England’s Past for Everyone’ series with the VCH, as well as educational benefits through working with schools, including sixth formers at the Maidstone Grammar Schools.

After this longer than usual introductory paragraph, I’ll now turn to this week. This is not everything offers a range of the CKHH’s activities comprising a royal visit to Canterbury, a presentation by one of the Kent History Postgraduates, and an initial meeting with Canterbury Cathedral’s new Pilgrimage Officer and another of the Kent History Postgraduates.

As you might expect the visit of Queen Camilla to Canterbury’s Beaney to unveil a newly commissioned statue by the Canterbury Commemoration Society under the chairmanship of Stewart Ross caught the attention of the regional tv news as well as the general public. Consequently, there was a good-sized crowd gathered on either side of the High Street in addition to dignitaries from the city, from the county, from a wide range of institutions including the Dean from Canterbury Cathedral and the Vice-Chancellor from CCCU, and representatives from a wide range of heritage organisations, including the CKHH. Moreover, there were several academics present who had delivered the recent project on Aphra Behn, including Dr Astrid Stilma from CCCU and Professor Elaine Hobby (University of Loughborough) as well as Charlotte Cornell, the city council’s Heritage Officer who is research Aphra Behn and is deputy chair of the Canterbury Commemoration Society. Also involved was Professor Carolyn Oulton (CCCU), whom some of you will know from her Kent Maps Online project, as well as her work as Co-Director of the International Centre for Victorian Women Writers.

Proceedings began with the Sea Scouts band entertaining the crowd before the Lord Mayor, standing next to the statue, gave a short speech to be followed by the arrival of the Queen. Stewart Ross introduced Queen Camilla to a few of the people who had been instrumental in organising matters before she was invited to unveil the statue itself. She then went into the Beaney to meet a group of schoolchildren who have been undertaking a project related to Aphra Behn before concluding her visit by going on a short walkabout and receiving gifts of flowers from several youngsters in the crowd of onlookers.

Once the Queen had departed by car, the guests, including those from CCCU, went into the reception at the Abode Hotel across the street from the Beaney. There I met Dr Rory Loughnane from the University of Kent and we heard two short speeches by Stewart Ross and Charlotte Cornell. Having to get away for another meeting, I left at this point but great to record a great royal visit and a satisfactory outcome for all those who had worked to secure the arrival of ‘Aphra Behn’ back in Canterbury after an absence of getting on for 400 years.

Moving back from Behn’s 17^th century into Tudor times and from Canterbury to Dover, Kieron Hoyle gave a fascinating presentation to the Kent History Postgraduates on Edward Baeshe and William Winter and their work concerning the professionalisation of victualling for the Crown’s ships. This may be seen as a long process from the use of Crown agents in Henry VIII’s reign, where much of this was done on an ad hoc basis and seemingly involved the use of friends of the agents, to a well-oiled system that was in place before the time of the Armada (Baeshe died shortly beforehand). This later system ensured that only reputable suppliers were used, the pricing system was set, and the management was such that ships’ captains knew what and how much they were to take onboard, which victualling yard they should use and how long it would take to re-supply their ships. As Kieron explain, for this transformation we can thank Baeshe, in particular, but Baeshe’s long friendship with Winter meant that he knew what captains’ needed because Winter during his long career rose to become an admiral and served in different campaigns, as well as on occasion being a privateer. From Kieron’s viewpoint, the records left by these two men are a treasure-trove for the historian because in addition to their considerable correspondence, Baeshe was a methodical person who kept very detailed notebooks, and even though little survives, the remnant that does is invaluable.

The second part of Kieron’s presentation focused on two building used as Tudor victualling yards: the late Abbey of St Mary de Grace near the Tower of London and the late pilgrim hospital at Dover known as the Maison Dieu. MOLA has done a large archaeological excavation of the late abbey site which they have published and this has provided a great deal of useful comparable information concerning how these naval victualling bases functioned, including the amount of warehousing required as well as specialist buildings such as slaughters houses, salting houses, brewhouses, bakehouses etc. As she said, this part of her research is still work in progress, but this is going to be a fascinating aspect and highlights the value of archival research because much of the material she is finding is not listed on the online catalogue.

After her presentation there were numerous comments and questions from the other postgraduates, and it was great to see the level of interest generated for those in the room and online. So many thanks Kieron for a great presentation and also thanks to the audience for both attending and engaging in the discussion.

Almost immediately, Michael Byrne, who is working on a late 15^th-century ME life and passion of Thomas Becket, and I met Torin Brown, the Pilgrimage Officer, to have a preliminary meeting ahead of another meeting next week about how different groups and institutions in Canterbury can work together on pilgrimage for the benefit of pilgrims, visitors and residents. This is an important and very welcome development with great potential, and some might say long overdue.

I think it was a highly productive meeting, but I’ll leave the details to another time when things are in place, but please to keep a look out for further information in due course.