Notes on the Contributors
Lisa Backhouse, B.A. (HONS), M.A., PH.D., AFHEA: is an archaeologist and pottery specialist who completed her PH.D. in Archaeology at the University of Reading in 2021. Her thesis presented a characterisation and socio-cultural interpretation of ceramics from early medieval Kent, focusing on the royal and monastic settlement of Lyminge. Lisa’s current research continues to explore socio-cultural identities represented through early medieval pottery in Kent and across the North Sea region.
Giles Dawkes, B.A. (HONS): is Project Officer with Archaeology South-East. After starting in commercial archaeology in 1993, Giles has worked principally in the UK, but also in the USA, Australia, and Ireland. He directed the ‘Silk Road Cities of Kazakhstan’ project between 2011-2016 and from 2019 ‘The lost fort of Castle Pinckney: from American Revolution to Civil War’ in South Carolina, USA. He been working in Kent since the 1990s and written numerous articles and five monographs on its archaeology.
Gillian Draper, PH.D.: is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Kent, and a staff member of the Centre for Kent History and Heritage at Canterbury Christ Church University https://ckhh.org.uk/our-people. She supervises the individual research projects of some medical students at the Kent and Medway Medical School. Gillian also undertakes historical research for Historic England and archaeology units and companies, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. In 2023 Gillian published an article entitled ‘Sir John Fogge’s Tomb: The Culmination of his Commemorative Scheme in Ashford Church, Kent’ in the Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society XXIV.
Elizabeth Eastlake, PH.D., RGN: After a career in nursing Elizabeth graduated from the University of Winchester in 2015. Her continuing work on processing translations of the Boxley Abbey archive is ongoing in relation to the Abbey Deeds and various monastic accounts in the hope that they can be added to the Kent Archaeological Society’s research pages in time.
John Hamilton, M.A.: studied Classics and History at university and then followed a career in buying and marketing for a major retailer. On retirement he returned to his interest in history, researching his own family genealogy producing publications on all of them. His discovery of the family connections with the Isle of Thanet was perhaps the most unexpected and rewarding part of this research. John has also completed course in archaeology and co-edited a book on Nottinghamshire’s medieval religious houses. He hopes to produce further articles on the more interesting discoveries of his family’s ancestry.
David Hillelson, B.A. (HONS), MCIFA; Helen Ashworth B.SC (HONS); ACIFA; Chris Turner B.A. (HONS) MCIFA.: The Heritage Network is an independent practice specialising in archaeology and the historic environment. Founded in 1992, the company has undertaken a wide variety of commercial archaeological projects for clients involved in housing and industrial development, pipeline and road construction, agriculture, and landscaping. Projects are administered and co-ordinated by David Hillelson, the Heritage Network’s [pg371]Managing Director, an established archaeologist with over forty years’ experience of the management of archaeological projects in both urban and rural environments. He holds an honours degree in archaeology from the University of Durham and is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA). He has been the practice’s principal officer since 1992.
George Knight, B.A. (HONS), M.A.: is the 2022 Thirsk Award and Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Research Grant recipient. He studied B.A. (Hons) History and M.A. Medieval and Early Modern Studies degrees at the University of Kent and works as a Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Consultant, advising on heritage mitigation in development and infrastructure schemes. He has worked in field archaeology and independently researches the digital humanities, including curating a resource page for online project MEMSLib.
Mark Knight, B.A.: is an archaeologist with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. His research focus is the prehistory of the Cambridgeshire Fens and the deeply buried landscapes made accessible via commercial development and large-scale mineral extraction. Sites such as Bradley Fen and Must Farm (Cambridgeshire) represent key examples of this work.
Barbara Martin: was a member of the Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey team from 1974 until 1992 when, with her husband, David (q.v.), she joined Archaeology South- East, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Now retired, she continues her research work unabated. Publications (under joint authorship with her husband and others) include ten volumes on the buildings of the High Weald, based on detailed analysis funded by English Heritage, University College London, and others.
David Martin, F.S.A., I.H.B.C.: was, until his retirement, a Senior Buildings Archaeologist at Archaeology South-East, and is now a Research Fellow of UCL. Prior to joining the university in 1992 he was Director of the Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey; as such, in association with his wife, Barbara (q.v.), he was responsible for recording a large body of historical buildings in eastern Sussex. He is a past president of the Vernacular Architecture Group (1999-2001).
Derek Oakensen, HNC, B.A., PH.D.: is an independent historian who specializes in 19th and early 20th century policing and crime in south-eastern counties. As well as acting as a consultant to the Old Police Cells museum at Brighton he regularly advises crime and detective fiction writers on Victorian policing.
Keith Parfitt, B.A., F.S.A., MCIFA.: worked as a professional archaeologist in Kent between 1978 and 2023. Now retired but continues to be active in the field, working with Kent Archaeological Society and Dover Archaeological Group. Present chair of the KAS Fieldwork Research Group. Elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2000. Currently engaged in personal research, fieldwork and writing up various ‘backlog’ sites.
Dr Nicholas Riall, B.A. (HONS), Dip Archaeology, PH.D.: was a field archaeologist for much of his working life, taking on projects from the Ice Ages through to the modern period, from woolly mammoth to Lego, if you will. In the 1970s he worked for the Canterbury Archeological Trust, directing the excavations at Highstead, near Chislet, a multi-period prehistoric and Romano-British site, before working in Thanet. Since 2000 he has been particularly interested in the arrival into sixteenth-century Britain of the fashion for the Renaissance style, on which he has written numerous papers.[pg372]
Jake Weekes, B.A (HONS), PH.D.: coordinated and edited the South East Research Framework for the Historic Environment from 2007–8, writing the chapter on the medieval period in Kent, West and East Sussex and Surrey, before becoming Research Officer for the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Jake maintains his own research interests in aspects of British Prehistory, Roman Britain, Funerary Archaeology and Romano-British and early medieval Canterbury. He is co-author of the monograph on Prehistoric Landscapes at Chalk Hill, Ramsgate, co-editor of Death as a Process. The Archaeology of the Roman Funeral and contributed the chapter on Cemeteries and Funerary Practice to the Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. His recent publications include the new Historic Map of Canterbury (2021), and the volume Farming, Everyday Life and Ritual. 6000 Years of Archaeology at Thanet Earth (2023).
Rob Wiseman, B.SC, M.A., PH.D, FSA, MCIFA.: is an archaeologist with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. He is past President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and past Council member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and the Prehistoric Society. His research interests include late-prehistoric, Roman and early medieval archaeology in the east of England, as well as methodologies of data synthesis, interpreting economics in past societies, and the application of cognitive psychology in archaeological interpretation.