A trilogy of literature donations
As of May, 2024 I shall have completed 70 years as a KAS member, having joined whilst still at school some years ago. It seems appropriate to place on record three important donations I have made to the Society over the decades.
The story begins about 1970 with a phone call from Ronald Jessup, a KAS vice-president. He had been asked to award a large collection of Arch. Cants on behalf of a recently deceased war-hero, a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. This collection had been started at the dawn of the Society by Augustus A. Arnold of Rochester, who had held office in the Society for many years. On his demise it passed to his RAF grandson and thus onwards to Ronald Jessup. His instructions were to nominate a young KAS member, who was very active in Kent archaeology, had a beard, was tee-total, had a great sense of humour and was able to fit into a narrow trench. As all other candidates failed every one of these qualifications, Jessup nominated me. I was delighted with the war-hero connection for I had survived the London Blitz in 1941, the V1 doodlebug Blitz of 1944 and later served in Fighter Command in West Germany as part of the Occupation Forces.
[fg]jpg|Fig 1: A trio of literature donations|Image[/fg]
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[fg]jpg|Fig 2. Example of Harrison Illustrations in the donated set. ‘Pear Shaped’.|Image[/fg]
The award, however, required a long trip in my Austin A35 excavation van to the Midlands to collect almost 80 volumes. On examination I was delighted to find some 80 letters, tucked into appropriate pages, in many of the volumes.
These had come from our Victorian predecessors including Roach Smith and a scatter of clerics. Clearly important, I donated these to the KAS at an AGM about 1990 and these should be in the library awaiting careful study.[fn1]
On checking again, I was delighted to find that it was the original copy owned by Dunkin himself and this too contained important early letters and many quill-written notes.
We then move on to 2006 with the sad death of Viscount Lord Monckton of Brenchley, one of our most effective Presidents. Having worked together for over 30 years, I gratefully accepted his wish that I inherit his collection of archaeological books, some of which duplicated my own. All now have his book-plate and mine on the inside cover. Close examination showed that one contained a series of fine sketches of eoliths drawn by the famous Benjamin Harrison of Ightham.[fn2] Gilbert Monckton was born at Ightham Mote about 1915, then owned by the Coyler-Fergusson family, his father having married the daughter. His uncle had won the Victoria Cross in WWI. As a local lad he knew Sir Edward Harrison, the father of the late-Benjamin, and together they spent many happy days scouring the nearby Downs for palaeoliths. This established his life-long interest in Kent archaeology.
In later years he served with distinction in WWII and was awarded the M.C. to match that of his father. His distinguished military career led to action in Syria, Italy and Korea. He retired with the rank of Major General, having inherited the title from his father. It seemed appropriate that I make a second donation of the original Harrison sketches to the KAS in 2022.
We now move onto 2023. This time I spotted another book from the Monckton library, this by John Dunkin of Dartford, dated about 1827, which focussed on the Roman site at Springhead. On checking again, I was delighted to find that it was the original copy owned by Dunkin himself and this too contained important early letters and many quill-written notes. It is appropriate that this volume should also be in the KAS library where it can be fully protected and available for study hereafter. Accordingly, I made this third presentation at the delayed AGM in November 2023.
Dr. Brian Philp is the director of the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit[fn3], a long serving member of the Kent Archaeological Society and has pioneered rescue work on sites threatened by development, opened sites to the public and established countless education programmes.
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A note from the Editor
Memoranda of Springhead and its Neighbourhood, during the Primeval Period.
A. J. Dunkin.
The importance of this incredible publication cannot be understated. It not only details one of the most enigmatic Roman sites in Britain but is also a window into the practice and understanding of antiquarian excavations during the 19th century. Changes in technology, interpretation and attitudes can all be gleamed from this unique goldmine of handwritten notes, articles, detailed records and fascinating sketches.
With this in mind, we are of the opinion this work should be fully accessible to future researchers and are actively facilitating this with the use of new technologies and expert knowledge.
We are submitting a call for any members who might be interested in volunteering to help transcribe the manuscript, after which we will update the results via our website and add to the already impressive collection of knowledge on the Springhead Roman site. See below for details of how to get involved in this groundbreaking project.
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[fg]jpg||Image[/fg][fg]jpg|Fig 3 and Fig 4. Digital facsimile and draft transcription examples.|Image[/fg]
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A note from our Digital Manager
[fg]png||Image[/fg]The volume is an archive in and of itself, comprising a heavily annotated collection of periodical clippings, pages from other books, poetry, letters and handwritten notes. The original 154-page volume, printed for private circulation in 1848, is interleaved with several hundred extracts of sources from the 1820s to the 1850s: including articles and reviews from The Athenaeum, Journal of Science and Art, The Literary Gazette, Youth’s Magazine, and pages from The Chronicles of Kent, Liber II (also by the author). The topics of articles and correspondence range from archaeology and history, etymology, linguistics, and geology; inserted and arranged into the original volume at points relevant to the text. The archive provides intriguing insight into the researches, processes and interests of mid-nineteenth century antiquarianism.
The collection has been photographed and a draft transcription has been produced, available at the Society website: kentarchaeology.org.uk/notes/memoranda-of-springhead
A working index has been provided and the illustrations have been reproduced. This digital facsimile and transcript can be explored by the public and researchers. Handwritten documents can provide a challenge for automatic transcription software (or Optical Character Recognition) and the index and transcript are in need of reviewers to improve accuracy and correct errors. Use the website comments feature, contact form or contact Digital Manager Jacob Scott to get involved: jacob.scott@kentarchaeology.org.uk
[fg]jpg|Fig 5. Facsimile and transcription project on the Kent Archaeological Society website.|Image[/fg]
[fn]1|Editor’s note: Since appointment as Archivist at the Society, I have been busy organising the Library and Archive collections. These important donations are part of the ongoing assessment and will soon be accessible to members, researchers and volunteers. If you have any questions do feel free to contact me on craig.campbell@kentarchaeology.org.uk[/fn]
[fn]2|see KAS magazine No.120.[/fn]
[fn]3|See KAS magazine no 115, Spring 2021, pp 16-18[/fn]