As last week I want to let you know about matters involving those attached to the Centre, and in this instance I want to highlight the value of working collaboratively with other organisations in Kent. The first involves the rescheduled lecture by Christ Church’s Dr John Bulaitis on the tithe ‘wars’ of the early 1930s. This talk comes under the umbrella of the Fourth Nightingale Memorial Lecture where the Centre has teamed up with the Agricultural Museum Brook, which holds these talks as a way of honouring Michael Nightingale’s vital contribution towards the setting up of the Museum. For in addition to the collection of mainly Kentish agricultural machinery and tools predominantly from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Museum comprises two fantastic buildings. Firstly, there is the Grade I listed barn which was an essential component of the manorial complex in the Middle Ages. For those of you who know Brook this will not come as a surprise, and those who have visited this little village near Wye will also know about the lovely parish church with its fantastic wall paintings and upper room. Completing the medieval complex is the manor house that at one time was the home of the Principal of Wye College and is now a private residence. For the non-medievalists, and also a fascinating building in its own right, is the Museum’s second historical building, an oast house which is an early example of the round type. Consequently it is hardly surprising that the Museum’s Trustees believe it is important to remember Michael Nightingale’s contribution, and it is excellent that his son John Nightingale continues the family’s connection, especially as he is an eminent historian based in Oxford. So as one for your diary: do come and hear John Bulaitis’ lecture ‘The Battle of the Ducks’, which will take place on Friday 2 October at 7.30pm (wine reception from 7.00pm) at Old Sessions House, Canterbury Christ Church University.

Pilgrim badge showing the murder of Thomas Becket

Museum of London

My second involves the wearing of multiple hats, metaphorically that is because I don’t like hats! As some of you may know today is the beginning of the National Festival of Archaeology fortnight. To mark the start Maidstone Museum held a family-friendly day to introduce everyone to various aspects of archaeology in the county. The Museum is an excellent location because not only does it have an important and interesting collection of artefacts, but it also houses the library or meeting room of Kent Archaeological Society. The Society has strong connections to the Centre at Christ Church, including through the Society’s President Ian Coulson, but also I have served on the Society’s Council for several years. Consequently I was representing both KAS and the Centre when I joined Pernille Richards, the Society’s Hon. Librarian, after lunch in the Society’s library. In the morning Mike Clinch had given a talk on underground Kent – dene holes and the like, and we had decided to contrast this with a much more hands-on session in the afternoon.

Lots of Magna Carta activities have focused on the making of seals which meant we needed something different, and finding that the Museum has a badge-making machine was extremely helpful. Now for a medievalist the obvious badges are those pilgrims got when they had been to a particular shrine or image, and of the places of pilgrimage in medieval Kent the most obvious is Canterbury. Thus our activity was pilgrim badge making, and specifically badges that denote St Thomas of Canterbury. In the later Middle Ages such badges were often made of pewter, although some were probably lead and up-market ones were silver. Most of our information about such badges comes from the many examples that have been found, often in or near rivers, although these must represent the tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of the total numbers made over the medieval period. It has been found that at particular important and popular shrines about 100,000 badges may have been sold to pilgrims each year. However the badges themselves are not the only sources. For Canterbury we do have the wills of a father and son badge-making business from the early 16^th century and the Prologue of The Tale of Beryn (takes Chaucer’s Pilgrims into Canterbury and the cathedral) also talks about (stealing) badges.

Thus the thirty or so children and parents in Maidstone today pretended they had been on pilgrimage to Canterbury because we talked briefly about whose shrine we would have been to in the Middle Ages, what it looked like, why we might have gone, and, most importantly, what sort of badge we might have chosen to mark the completion of our ‘pilgrimage’. We looked at the simple ones which show St Thomas in his archiepiscopal vestments with his mitre, before moving on to look at badges that show episodes in Thomas’ life: his exile – on board a ship still wearing his mitre; and his death at the hands of the knights while a monk looks on. This surprisingly graphic depiction was contrasted to a badge that just had a sword and shield – emblematic of Thomas’ martyr’s death. These latter two badges were very popular, perhaps because we had more boys than girls, but we did also have some takers for the ship too. We also looked at a badge representing the shrine and then those showing ampullae, which are likely to have held a few drops of liquid – purporting to be the watered-down blood of St Thomas and hence having the potential for contemporaries of conferring healing powers to believers. The Canterbury bell was not popular, which again reflects the desire for a badge that portrays action in some form or other.

We had a pretty constant stream of badge-makers throughout the afternoon and, just like their medieval forebears, they went away proudly wearing their badges. Moreover by denoting their achievement, the early badge makers this afternoon seem to have helped to advertise the session, bringing in more recruits to try their hand at cutting out, sticking and colouring their chosen creation. This activity may seem a very simple introduction to archaeology (and history), but hopefully it is such days that will inspire the next generation of diggers and researchers. In addition, it is probably worth remembering that the skills involved in these two subjects are not only important for historians and archaeologists but can be transferred to many career paths. Consequently this was an enjoyable and worthwhile afternoon.