Before I come to the opening of the new gallery at Maidstone Museum with its official launch yesterday (Tuesday 5 June), I thought I would take the opportunity to mention more of the forthcoming events which will take us into early July.

Although firstly, I’m delighted to record that today, Jason Mazzocchi, studying late Elizabethan/Jacobean Faversham for his doctorate, has been at Queen Mary’s, University of London at their ‘Workshop on Medieval and Early Modern Cities in Europe and the Mediterranean’. His presentation was on ‘The Fraternity of the Free Fishermen and Dredgermen of Faversham’, the day giving him the chance to meet a panel of experts and early career academics from Europe and beyond who are working on a wide range of urban communities and subjects – from the curfew law in late medieval London to the use of bilingual academic drama in a variety of urban communities across early modern Europe. Jason’s presentation was well received and among the experts there was Dr Justin Colson who some may remember was a speaker as this year’s Medieval Canterbury Weekend. As a result, Justin has contacted the archivist at the Leathersellers’ Company and Jason now has an invitation to visit the Company’s archives to see if he can find references to Christopher Finch from Faversham who seemingly had dealings with this London Livery Company in the early 17^th century – so an excellent result! This day has been organised by Professor Miri Rubin who some may recall gave the CKHH Becket Lecture in 2022: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/kenthistory/becket-lecture-green-dragons-and-lossenham-project/

As I mentioned before, next week will be very busy because on Wednesday it is the first of the two Kent History Postgraduates presentations in June, in this instance to be given by Lizzie Burton. Then on Thursday it will be Professor Louise Wilkinson’s Historical Association Canterbury branch lecture here at CCCU in Old Sessions House at 7pm. Her title is ‘Long Live the Empress! The imperial marriage of Isabella of England, Henry III’s sister, and her progress through Kent in 1235‘. Louise will tell the remarkable story of Isabella of England, the second daughter of King John, who in May 1235 travelled through Kent on her way to Europe to marry the Emperor Frederick II thus becoming Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Sicily, Italy and Germany. Admission is free for members and students. £5 for everybody else. Membership for the year is £10 and includes free entry to all talks.

Friday and Saturday will be the University of Kent’s MEMSFest, which comprises a full programme of papers and workshops given by postgraduates and post-docs, as well as a few staff members. Some of the paper givers are from outside Great Britain, and one of those who presented last year is now a MEMS Taught MA student and one of the MEMSFest organisers. As I said, there is a panel on the Saturday morning comprising three CCCU Kent History Postgraduates: Jason, Kieron Hoyle and Kaye Sowden, which is very exciting. If you would like to know more, please check out the webpage: https://memsfestival.wordpress.com/ and consider registering to join them for this feast of medieval and early modern new scholarship.

The week after features the CKHH’s 10-year celebratory event at which Dr Claire Bartram and I will take the opportunity to thank representatives from the many different organisations and groups the Centre has worked with over the last decade since it was established by Professor Jackie Eales and Dr Stephen Hipkin in 2014 with an exhibition and talks at Maidstone Museum. We’ll also take the chance to thanks colleagues and doctoral students who have been involved in CKHH and associated activities.

Towards the end of June, on Monday 24^th there is the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC) Summer Meeting and AGM at Canterbury on ‘Canterbury Cathedral: Manuscript and Print in Archive Collections’. This is an excellent opportunity to bring together Canterbury Cathedral Archives & Library and the two Canterbury-based universities in the form of MEMS at Kent and CKHH at CCCU. If you are interested, please contact Dr Alison Ray at alison.ray@spc.ox.ac.uk .

Then two days later, on the Wednesday, Kieron Hoyle will give the second Kent History Postgraduates presentations on her research including exploring with her colleagues some ideas about relational databases as research tools.

Moving into early July, there is the Medieval Pageant, including its parade through Canterbury on Saturday 6 July, which will feature several giants as in previous years. The CKHH will be back in St Paul’s church again to provide activities for families and this year we will be offering craft your own animal facemasks and paper plate unicorn horns. This is the official website, so please do check it out: https://canterburymedievalpageant.co.uk/

The day will be very busy because in the evening it is the St Thomas More Commemoration Service at St Dunstan’s church at 7.30pm. This annual event on the anniversary of the day More was beheaded is marked by a commemorative civic service, which is attended by the Lord Mayor, local Catholic clergy and members of the legal profession, as well as parishioners and members of the public – all welcome, refreshments after the service. The service includes an address and last year the guest speaker was Dr David Rundle, a specialist in the Renaissance in England at the University of Kent. His subject was ‘From St Dunstan to Thomas More: Canterbury, learning and sanctity’, whereas this year I’ll be giving it under the title ‘Thomas More’s Canterbury’, specifically 1520s Canterbury because it is a fascinating period in the city’s history.

Now returning to the opening ceremony of the new ‘Lives in our Landscape’ gallery at Maidstone Museum that yesterday was opened by Hugh Dennis, who amongst other tv programmes has presented The Great British Dig on Channel Four. As he said, “Maidstone Museum has really achieved something quite outstanding with this immersive and exciting gallery. I would encourage everyone to come and see it and experience the changing landscapes of Kent for themselves.” According to the Museum’s press release, “The new gallery tells the story of how people have lived in the area with objects dating back more than 600,000 years, including the earliest stone tools in a forested landscape, up to the medieval period, when Maidstone became a bustling market town.” And having seen it yesterday, I agree.

The Museum’s curatorial staff, with the KAS curator, Dr Andy Ward, have done a great job of taking the finds identified from the Museum’s various collections by a series of experts, including CCCU’s Dr Lindsey Buster from Archaeology who worked on the Bronze Age material, while I did the same for the Museum’s medieval artefacts, to produce a series of well-lit, clearly labelled display cases with plenty but not too many finds and artefacts, as well as several other features that together provide fascinating insights into the lives of people in the past. These, I believe, will indeed engage families, schoolchildren and adults. Furthermore, the amount of detail on offer will draw people in to want to find out more about the history of Maidstone and Kent more broadly. Therefore, all the team should be congratulated, including the sponsors such as the William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust, the Maidstone Museums’ Foundation, Maidstone Council, the Kent Archaeological Society and others, for all their efforts and I hope it will be a great success, bringing people to Maidstone from other parts of Kent, and from beyond the county boundary, as well as those from Maidstone itself.