This strange object appeared in the last issue and we asked if anyone could make an identification. Mrs. Pat Winzar wrote to say that it is the rare vamp-horn from Charing Church and that it is best described by the late Allen Grove FSA in an article on page 3 of the Journal of Kent History no. 12, March 1981.
"Kent still retains a rare instrument which I hesitate to call musical. It is the vamp-horn in Charing Church. There are some half-dozen other vamp-horns in England – at Willoughton in Lincolnshire; East Leake and Brybrooke in Nottinghamshire; Harrington in Northamptonshire; Ashurst in Sussex. Apparently, these instruments were used to amplify the sounds of the voices or to supply a missing part of the church band. According to Canon MacDermott, an old Sussex parish clerk who used the Ashurst vamp-horn stated that he merely sang or shouted down the instrument to make more sound for the singing."
[fg]jpg|The Vamp-Horn|Image[/fg]