Dr Steve Willis, Vice President of the KAS and Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent delivered the latest Trustee Talk live on Teams on Tuesday 11th.

Recently published findings from the excavations of the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit in Gravesend in 1989 draw attention to the discovery of a riverside Romano-British settlement over an area of at least 5 acres, a road extending inland, and a possible Roman military site.

Clive Holden’s report is the culmination of his two years research into the military history of Maidstone in the Second World War and the plans for its defence.

The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is the official index to English and Welsh manorial records and provides brief descriptions of documents and details of their locations in public and private hands. The National Archives at Kew now provide online access to this resource. Manorial documents include court rolls, surveys, maps, terriers, documents and books of every description relating to the boundaries, franchises, wastes, customs or courts of a manor.

Dr Steve Willis of the University of Kent provides an update on a fieldwork grant awarded in 2019 to enable students from the university to attend a training dig in Lincolnshire.

Randall Manor, once home to the de Cobhams of Randall, is situated within what is now Shorne Woods Country Park, near Gravesend in Kent. This talk covers the community excavations between 2006 and 2015 and the history of the site.

Membership to the Society is now free for all adult students.

It is with immense sadness that we bring you the news that Albert Daniels, the longstanding MAAG archaeological lead and KAS member died on the morning of 24 November 2020 in Maidstone

Reports from the "Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project" are currently available to download online, via the Historic England website.

British History Online provides a digital version of "A history of the County of Kent: volume 2", originally published in 1926. This volume deals with the religious houses of Kent, including accounts of the early history of Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals.

British History Online provides online access to "The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent", volumes 1 to 12, by Edward Hasted and originally published in 1797. These volumes include a general account of the history, topography and natural history of the ancient county. It also details the parishes of the two hundreds of Blackheath and Bromley and Beckenham, including several parishes which now form part of metropolitan London. These include Charlton, Deptford, Greenwich, Lewisham and Woolwich.

Cobham Landscape Detectives was a three year, lottery funded, community archaeology project. It aimed to explore the Kentish Parish of Cobham and beyond. The booklet details some of the discoveries that were made and the history that was uncovered. It takes a chronological approcah, beginning in Prehistory and ending with WWII military camps that still dot the landscape. This booklet has kindly been donated to the KAS library by the Detectives.

Bones discovered more than a century ago in a Kent church are almost certainly the remains of an early English saint who was the granddaughter of Ethelbert, the first English king to convert to Christianity, experts have concluded.

The Society features in Channel 4's The Great British Dig, available to watch now on-demand at 4OD.

I came across this video (slightly dated) on the weekend where the London and Surrey 'Earth Mysteries' groups have a day trip around some of the Kentish prehistoric sites. Particularly of interest to me was the visit to Chestnuts. (I believe that site is currently inaccessible, being on private land.) The video prompted me to take my own little day trip to to find the Chiding Stone.