Archaeol Cantiana 126

Paper describing the trade of tanning and the lives of the tanners in the manor of Wrotham in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Tanning took place in four of the six boroughs: Nepicar, Winfield, Hale and Roughway. Topics covered include the regulation of the tanning industry; the butchers and graziers of Wrotham; the leathermaking process; and the tanners of Nepicar, Winfield, Hale, and Roughway.

catalogue of illustrated pottery

Report of archaeological investigations carried out along the route of the proposed A228 realignment in Middle Stoke. Features revealed included Bronze Age pits and a linear ditch; a small Romano-British pit intercutting the ditch; fourteen features of medieval date, of which seven were linear, five were discrete features and two were horizontal spreads; and a number of undatable features. Separately authored reports include

Second of two articles, describing the personalities involved in clockmaking in Charing and their achievements; evidence for the introduction of turret clocks in major houses of the parish is examined, and a review is made of horological developments in the twentieth century. Includes

Third of a series of reports on investigations at the Roman villa complex on Abbey Farm, Minster-in-Thanet. The report describes a substantial stone-built corridor house of several phases located at the southeastern corner of the site, outside the main walled enclosure (a corresponding structure stood outside the southwestern corner of the enclosure). The building initially consisted of two large rooms surrounded by a broad corridor on three sides; a small hypocausted room was subsequently inserted into the southwest corner of this corridor. The corridor was later widened and extended northwards across the line of the enclosure wall. Two ditches of possible Late Iron Age date, on a different axis, were found beneath the building.

The author reviews twelve early Kent churches to illustrate typical Anglo-Saxon building techniques. All reveal a similarity of construction of certain portions of their older quoins, and documentary evidence indicates the probable presence of each of the churches during the Anglo-Saxon period. The orientation of the bedding planes in the stones is examined as an indication of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Using as a basis the thesis that a `gateway community' controlling maritime activity and, to some extent, cross-Channel voyaging, existed in the area of the Wantsum Channel and the Isle of Thanet during the last two millennia of prehistory, the author presents some thoughts on the design of the vessels in use and the navigation methods and sailing routes used.

The author examines the aspirations of a member of the Kent gentry, William Haute, and his search for salvation and commemoration, as revealed in his will and its comparison with those of other members of his peer group. The paper discusses the significance of William's instructions for burial, charitable works, pious bequests (including holy relics), and in particular a stone alleged to have been that onto which the Archangel Gabriel descended when he saluted the Virgin Mary, which William bequeathed to the parish church of Bishopsbourne.

Report on an archaeological excavation of land to the west of Bredgar Primary School in 2004, in advance of the construction of a new classroom block. Evidence of Late Iron Age and Early Roman activity was found, including the ditches a Late Iron Age enclosure; ditches, pits and postholes and a postulated timber structure belonging to the Roman occupation of the mid-first century; temporary abandonment and agricultural use; and later-first- to early-second-century Roman occupation indicated by the construction of a rectangular building indicated by flint nodule-filled trenches, followed by demolition deposits. Separately authored reports include

Excavations in advance of construction work at Guilton Mill, Ash-next-Sandwich, on a site within the area of a known Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, revealed a single grave containing traces of highly decayed bone and an area of iron staining.

Note proposing the existence at Lamb's Cross, Chart Sutton, of a sixteenth-century kiln, based on the discovery of sherds and wasters of pottery of the same types as those found at the Hareplain kiln, Biddenden.