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TAG: Kent Archaeological Society

Maritime Kent – place-names, sea songs and Anglo-Saxon ‘invaders’

Keeping with the maritime theme, at least for part of this blog, I thought I would report on a presentation I went to last Saturday at the Beaney in Canterbury. This was the second in a series of lectures and other events organised by the Kent History and Library Centre at Maidstone under the title ‘Life along the Kent Coast’ that works with an exhibition at Maidstone called ‘Bawleys, Barbels and Owlers’.

What has this got to do with the Centre for Kent History and Heritage, I hear you cry. Well, one of the Centre’s events in 2018 will be a conference on ‘Maritime Kent through the Ages’, which it is envisaged will take place on a Saturday in June, perhaps with a keynote lecture on the Friday evening. More details on this soon because presently it is very much a ‘work in progress’. Another event, similarly at the planning stage, is the joint one-day conference between the Centre and the Kent History Federation [KHF]. This is due to take place on Saturday 12 May at Old Sessions, CCCU under the theme ‘Tudor and Stuart Canterbury’, thereby in some ways complementing the Canterbury Medieval Weekend 2018, which will take place between 6 and 8 April. Having had a fruitful meeting with the KHF executive committee on Monday, I now have more ideas to follow up and I hope to be able to reveal some of the details shortly.

Dr Mark Bateson (Kent Archives Service) introduces the event
However to return to the presentation last Saturday, this was given by Dr Paul Cullen and some of you may remember Paul from his fascinating talks on Kentish place-names, especially field-names, and surnames as part of the joint conference between the Centre and the Kent Archaeological Society last year. This time Paul turned his attention to maritime or coastal names, and one of the things that surprised him was that for many the first record of the name was not until the 16th or 17th century, and actually quite a few do not pre-date the Victorians. Paul mused on this and the audience considered it too, one suggestion being that the influx of holiday makers in the 19th century meant there was a desire to make places along coast, and Thanet in particular, appear exotic, foreign and exciting, in other words just the sort of place it was good to visit.

Paul provided lots of examples, many of which he illustrated using old postcards, indeed, these at time were his only source for the place-name itself. Among these modern place names, Paul discussed Cliftonville (St John the Baptist, Thanet), which a member of the audience from Margate believes initially was a reference to a local hotel. Also a late comer, as far as Paul can see, is Shakespeare Cliff, Dover, because, ok, it ‘must’ post-date the Bard but the earliest reference Paul can find is 1818. However, although he hasn’t revealed his sources, one researcher believes he has a much earlier use of this designation. I’ll leave it there and if I hear any more I’ll pass it on.

Perhaps mistaken identity accounts for the name Swalecliffe, the ‘cliffe’ part being relatively straightforward, that is a slope over 45 degrees, albeit the vertical distance doesn’t appear to matter and a river bank seems to be sufficiently deep to be so designated. Rather it is the birds that may have been misidentified from medieval and even earlier times, or maybe in earlier time it was swallows rather than the modern day sand martins, because the first element comes from the Old English [OE] ‘swealwe’ a swallow.

One of Paul Cullen’s other examples
To take one more of Paul’s many examples of different maritime elements, Dungeness is rather interesting and brings in the southern Kent marshes. Again, some of the elements are pretty straightforward in that ‘nase’, ‘ness’ is OE for a nose, and, like the nose, Dungeness is a promontory. In fact, it is a moving promontory in that longshore drift is gradually moving the gravel spit eastwards, a move counteracted by man in an attempt to safeguard the site of the nuclear power station! So what about the first two elements of Dunge, which was until relatively recently ‘Denge’? One idea that has been put forward in ‘dyncge’, OE dung but Paul is rightly unhappy with this and thinks what we should be thinking about is ‘denn’, OE for a pasture region. For even though this is most frequently linked to woodland, especially but not exclusively the Weald, it is very much a Kentish element and not that far away is Shipesdenne (Lydd) which comes from pasture for sheep. Furthermore, we know from an Anglo-Saxon charter that there were holly trees growing on Dengemarsh and as higher land than the surrounding Romney and Walland Marshes, it is perfectly feasible that the holly offered fodder and the gravel refuge for grazing animals. I’ll skip the other idea that Paul also discounted: ‘denu’, OE for a steep sided valley, and instead turn to the final (middle) element of ‘gē’ for a region. This is found quite widely in east Kent but otherwise exceedingly rarely – Paul pointed to Surrey as one of the few ‘that got away’, and again it fits very nicely for the wooded region on the gravels of Dungeness.

The audience was delighted with all these different elements, and, after Paul’s talk, several people came up afterwards to offer further ideas and/or information. If this is something you are interested in, there is a chapter of Paul’s place-name elements in Early Medieval Kent, 800-1220 (Boydell, 2016) and available through booksellers and the Kent History and Library Centre.

This short interval also gave Paul a chance to catch his breath before he launched into the second half of the programme. As a consummate folk singer, Paul accompanied himself on the guitar when he sang a selection of sea shanties and fo’c’sle songs, the former being unaccompanied ‘work’ songs and the latter entertainment on board ship when the hands were generally below deck, hence the name. These were great fun, although the topics covered could be gruesome, as in the case of a song about Andrew Rose, a young man in the British Navy who suffered terribly at the hands of Captain Rogers, although the captain got his comeuppance when the ship returned to Liverpool. The second of this sort covered a story from Kent and involved the murder of two sisters from Folkestone in 1856.

Paul singing a fo’c’sle song
At this point, I’ll turn to another theme but if this sounds interesting and you would like to hear Paul he will be repeating the event on 30 September at 6.30pm at the Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone. Another two events that will be taking place at Maidstone as part of this series are talks by lecturers at CCCU. Firstly, on 27 September Dr Martin Watts will give his reaction to the exhibition and build his lecture around the cabinet that most takes his fancy, and then on 11 October Professor Carolyn Oulton will discuss the seaside reading of Londoners who came down to the coastal resorts on Thanet, using authors from Dickens to Barbara Cartland. These talks will also begin at 6.30pm and if you want to attend, please book a ticket by calling 03000 41 64 38 or emailing archives@kent.gov.uk, tickets are £5 each.

Finally, another matter that I want to mention is a ‘busman’s holiday’ that I took with a fellow medievalist from the University of Birmingham when last week we went to look at the parish church at St Margaret at Cliffe. If you don’t know it the Norman carving is exquisite and the number of ‘heads’ on the columns and arches is truly extraordinary, as I hope you can see from the photo. Mary Berg and Howard Jones have discussed the patronage link to St Martin’s Priory at Dover [became subordinate to Christ Church Priory], as well as its architectural features, in their book on Norman churches in the diocese of Canterbury, and again if you are interested, I would recommend the church and the book. It is appropriate to mention such features because of a lecture coming up early in September that is jointly organised by the Centre and Canterbury Cathedral. Professor Sandy Heslop, an expert on medieval church art and architecture, will discuss Archbishop Anselm’s crypt and the various carvings there on Friday 8 September at 6pm. This free talk will take place in the AV Theatre, Schools Dept in the Lodge within the cathedral precincts. Booking is essential because space is limited and the web address is www.eventbrite.co.uk and for further details email journey@canterbury-cathedral.org

Chancel arch at St Margaret at Cliffe (Photo: Dr Philippa Semper).
This seems a good place to finish. However, for those of you in Canterbury on Sunday 3 September and wish to learn about the city’s history from the late Roman period through to the time of St Augustine, you will be most welcome at the open lecture at 7.30pm (prior booking not required), as part of the 68th International Sachsensymposion. The organising committee includes Dr Andy Seaman from CCCU amongst others, although this particular lecture will be held in the Colyer Fergusson Lecture Theatre at the University of Kent. Professor Paul Bennett (Director of Canterbury Archaeological Trust) will be speaking under the title ‘Canterbury in Transition’ – do come along.

Canterbury Museum – at a crossroads

Due to it being half-term last week, I took the opportunity to visit the Canterbury Heritage Museum because now it is shut again for another month until the Easter holidays. Consequently, several of the photos this week are of the museum and link in some way to the twin themes I want to mention this week: travelling and communities.

From Rendlesham to Canterbury – valuing co-operation

This week has brought another round of meetings. However, on Wednesday I also managed to attend a fascinating lecture given by Professor Christopher Scull, organised by Dr Andy Seaman and Dr Darrell Rohl, as part of the staff-student archaeology seminar series at Canterbury Christ Church.

Museum of Canterbury – exciting opportunity

This week I have been to two meetings among other things, and, although they may seem very different, they actually have common themes such as the value of bringing archaeology and documentary research together, as well as the importance of studying the lives of people in the past who were not royalty or aristocrats, but who made up the bulk of society.

Gender conference at Canterbury

For the last four days, History and the Centre at Canterbury Christ Church has hosted the Gender and Medieval Studies conference under the overarching theme of ‘Gender, places, spaces, thresholds’. Dr Diane Heath, the organiser, has been brilliant and the appreciative audience has been treated to a veritable feast. Live tweeting is now the name of the game and if you want to get a flavour of what has been happening, please tap into #GMSPlaces

Kent History Centre events in 2017

So what is there to look forward to from the Centre in the first half of 2017? The flagship event will be the ‘Tudors and Stuarts History Weekend’ between Friday 31 March and Sunday 2 April, which primarily will take place in Old Sessions House, part of the University’s Canterbury campus.

Reviewing Kent History and Heritage Centre

I thought that this week and next would follow the example of the Roman god Janus and look back this week and forward next week into 2017. Consequently, the blog today will offer a brief summary of events organised or involving the Centre during 2016 to provide a flavour of the types of activities various members undertook under the Centre’s head, Professor Jackie Eales.

Kent’s History and Heritage – working together

You might say this week that the theme is working with others, whether this involves archaeology or history. However, before I get down to reporting what has been happening I thought I would just make a final reference to Paul Bennett’s lecture as the new Visiting Professor in the Centre on this coming Tuesday.

Kent and Canterbury Projects

Firstly, very briefly, we are now just over a week away from the joint all-day conference on ‘Names: Kent Places and People’ that will take place in Powell Lecture theatre on Saturday 12 November. There are still tickets available at: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-culture/calendar.aspx or email artsandculture@canterbury.ac.uk or phone 01227 782994. Another date for those from Canterbury is Tuesday 6 December at 6pm in Old Sessions House when Paul Bennett, the Director of Canterbury Archaeological Trust, will give his audience the story of his life as an archaeologist that will include his work in Libya, Iraq and Canterbury – not to be missed!

Being in Petts Wood on Wednesday, I met Janet Clayton who is working on her doctorate under the supervision of Dr David Grummitt at Canterbury Christ Church. She is researching the history of Scadbury manor through its relations with London. As a leading member of Orpington and District Archaeological Society, she has for several decades been involved in numerous archaeological excavations in and around this moated manor complex. It is a gem of a place and this was my first opportunity to see it. The de Scadbury family as holders of the manor may predate the 1260s but, as Janet said, this is the first reference to them and is an interesting period because it coincides with the baronial wars between Henry III and Simon de Montmort, and the de Montforts had land in the area. Nevertheless, Scadbury is usually associated with the Walsingham family who may have come originally from Little Walsingham in Norfolk. Yet the connection is closer because Thomas Walsingham was an extremely wealthy London vintner and like many of his social group he purchased land, or in this case a manor, in the early fifteenth century. He may have resided in Kent at times, but his London house probably remained his main residence, and he and his wife sought burial in their home parish of St Katherine’s by the Tower. Such London merchants, and in Thomas’s case his son, grandson and great-grandson continued to foster the relationship between town and country; court, London and the provinces, and it such connections and inter-connections that Janet is exploring.

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The great hall at Scadbury

Of course, she is not the only history/archaeology postgraduate at Canterbury Christ Church working on a Kent topic, and among the others are Joseph O’Riordan and Jacie-Ann Ryan whom I have mentioned before. Joseph is working on the impact of the Reformation on the people of Canterbury and Jacie-Ann is exploring food history in Kent during the Second World War. However there are others and they include Cheryl Periton who is studying the development of numeracy in early modern society for a doctorate. She is using Faversham as her main case study, not least because the town and church court records are especially rich for this area of Kent. Lily Hawker-Yates will draw on archaeology and history as she examines how people explain the archaeology around them, both in the past and in the present. Using documents within Canterbury Cathedral Archives, such as parish records, she will seek changes in names of local places, which in some cases may reflect growing folk tradition. Another potentially valuable source for such a study are the Kent Hundred Rolls that date from 1274-5 and give information about who held land and what they were doing with it (digging ditches, buildings that may now exist solely as earthworks). Like Joseph, Hannah More has just started working on a Masters and her chosen topic is the suffragette movement in Kent, looking particularly at the differences in the experiences and attitudes of women in two regions of the county, firstly the Medway area, and, as a comparison, the apparently more militant women of east Kent.

Furthermore, several staff members within the School of Humanities are at various stages of putting together project proposals to funding bodies from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the AHRC. Among the former who are looking to develop a more community-based project are Dr Lesley Hardy from History and Dr Mike Bintley from English Literature. I have mentioned their joint proposal before, but I thought I would mention that Mike told me recently that Lesley had been working very hard on the bid with Dr Andrew Richardson of Canterbury Archaeological Trust and that they had or were just about to submit an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund regarding the ‘Finding Easnwithe’ project. This will also involve a particularly active local history and archaeology group from Folkestone and hopefully it will follow in the successful footsteps of ‘A Town Unearthed’, also funded by the Heritage Lottery a few years ago.

At a much earlier stage is a project on early modern Canterbury, which will employ the research skills of those at Canterbury Christ Church and elsewhere. This project is likely to involve Professors Jackie Eales from CCCU and Catherine Richardson from the University of Kent. I’m sure Jackie Eales is well known from her 1641 project on Canterbury, and Catherine has written extensively on material culture in the early modern period. Among her many publications are Everyday Objects and The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe, and, as she and Tara Hamling have noted, ‘Knowing about people’s possessions is crucial to understanding their experience of daily life, the way they saw themselves in relation to their peers and their responses to and interactions with the social, cultural and economic structure and processes which made up the societies in which they lives’. Consequently, it will be interesting to see how all of these projects move forward and I will keep readers of the blog posted on developments.