Surveys at Hope-All-Saints

(by kind permission of the farmer, Mr. Peter Waddell)

According to the Soil Survey map, this church stood in a particularly interesting position, close to the north shore of the Romney estuary.

The Fabric of the Church

The part-standing ruin of the church of Hope-all-Saints is all that remains of a settlement about which very little is known. Aerial photographs have revealed nothing of interest in the surrounding cultivated fields.

It was decided that the fabric of this church should be the first to be surveyed, because the internal structure of the walls can be seen easily, as well as both sides of. the walls (they are not, for once, concealed beneath layers of plaster). The survey was carried out in September and November by a team of archaeologists led by Mrs. Maureen Bennell.

Using a scaffolding tower and planning frames, the stones were drawn individually at a 1:10 scale and annotated where necessary to indicate unusual material. Internal and external elevations of the standing walls were drawn, as were any worked stones lying on the ground which showed diagnostic properties.

It was shown that Hope was a simple two-cell (nave and chancel) building. It had a distinct form of rubble wall construction, but there were no architectural details which could give the building a date. However, documentary evidence, particularly from Hasted, of details now lost points very much to a 1130-1160 date.

Maureen Bennell

Field-Walking

A programme of field-walking, aimed at testing the assumption that there was once a settlement at Hope, was carried out by Roland Harris in the field between the church and the road. This was done in late October, when the soil had had a month to break down after being ploughed.

The field was divided into a 25 m grid, following the Ordnance Survey National Grid. Each square was walked south to north twice, with an estimated 1.5 m wide band of coverage, giving a 12% sample of the total area of the field. The finds from each square were bagged, washed and fabric types sorted, counted and weighed. All pottery, iron and species-identifiable bone have been kept, and subject to agreement, will go to Folkestone Museum. All slate, oyster shell, unidentified bone and fire cracked flints were thrown away.

The finds were concentrated in the centre of the field. Apart from three sherds which were probably of Late Iron Age/Roman manufacture, all the pottery found dates between mid 13th century and mid 15th century, and is of domestic, not foreign manufacture. The large assemblage of medieval pottery and other finds forms a convincing basis for the conclusion that a settlement existed in this area of Hope parish during the Middle Ages. The lack of much earlier material is perhaps surprising, and needs an explanation, but the absence of post-medieval pottery points helpfully to an end of occupation, possibly by the 16th century.

Roland Harris

Projected work for 1989

Maureen Bennell will direct a ground survey of the church and surrounding earthworks. An expert will identify the various unusual rock-types used in the church building (where did they come from and how did they get there?) In New Romney, Roland Harris will record part of the west face of the tower of St. Nicholas, both to analyse the building methods and see what comparison there is with Hope, and to make a record of the fast-deteriorating c.1140 structure.