Category Archives: Thanet’s Heritage Pioneers

VM_365 Day 264 Cropmarks record ancient Ramsgate landscape

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Lord of the Manor, Neolithic, Ramsgate, Roman, Thanet, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Training excavation at Lord of the Manor 2013, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 264Today’s image for Day 264 of the VM_365 project shows an aerial photograph of one of the most impressive groups of crop mark groups in Thanet’s historic landscape. The picture was taken in the the late 1970’s, from an aeroplane flying over the downland ridge at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate overlooking Pegwell Bay.

In the photograph, which is facing south east toward Ramsgate, a chalk ridge extends from the lower right corner of the picture toward the top left. The ridge is isolated by the dry valleys that flank it on the right and left hand sides, affording spectacular views over the coastline to the south .

The overflight to photograph the cropmarks took place before several major developments in the road network in the immediate area took place, preserving a record of the  landscape despite the considerable changes  that have happened in recent years. The linear markings and circular shapes that can be seen through the variations in the colour of the crops growing in the field, indicate the locations of buried archaeological features and sites, which have been investigated in many phases of archaeological investigations that were guided by the location of the crop marks since the photograph was taken. The effect of buried archaeological sites  which produced the variations in colour in the growing crop was explained in a drawing produced by Dave Perkins in our VM_365 post for Day 252.

At the junction between a road and a railway cutting that can be seen at the top right of the picture, one of the earliest published archaeological investigations was conducted by William Rolfe, Thomas Wright and Charles Roach Smith, when an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was disturbed by the railway cutting in 1846.  A drawing made of one of the graves was shown on VM_365 Day 225. The Saxon cemetery and the more ancient Bronze Age ring ditches that had occupied the ridge, continued to be investigated in several stages in the later 20th century.  Images of some of the excavations of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery that were carried out in the 1980’s were shown in the VM_365 posts for Day 216 and Day 217.

The three concentric ring ditches of a multi-phase monument, which was first constructed in the Neolithic period and was renewed in the Beaker and Bronze Age periods, can be seen in the bottom right part of the image. A view of the partial excavation of the three ring ditches in 1976 was shown in the image for Day_21.

Archaeological work in this landscape has continued to be carried out with the ditches of an Iron Age settlement being explored in 2012 and in a  training excavation carried out as recently at 2013.

 

VM_365 Day 250 Dr David Perkins

Archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Dave Perkins, St Mildred's Bay 1988.
Dave Perkins surveying at St Mildred’s Bay, 1988.

Today’s image for Day 250 of VM_365 is a picture of David Perkins, the first Director of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology.

Dave was born an brought up in Ramsgate and his passion for the history of Thanet was inspired by his father’s love of historical subjects and his grandmother’s tales of local life and folklore. He first trained as an artist specialising in book and technical illustration and followed various careers as a commercial artist and running a business designing and manufacturing leather goods before being introduced to archaeology as a career later in life at the age of 38.

His introduction to archaeology came during a visit to the excavation of a Neolithic and Bronze Age site at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate in 1976, he volunteered to help on the same day and his illustration skills were soon in demand. He progressed quickly from volunteer to full time supervisor working on archaeological projects with the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit and the Manpower Services Commission Youth Training Scheme including the excavation between 1978-9 of the Medieval Church of All Saints, Shuart with Frank Jenkins and the discovery and recording of the shipwreck of the HMS Stirling Castle off the Goodwin Sands in 1979. An early career highlight for Dave was the excavation of over 300 graves at the Ozengell Anglo Saxon cemetery, Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate between 1977 -1980.

In 1982 the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit began compiling its own sites and Monuments record for use in research and local government planning some years in advance of the creation of a county wide record. David Perkins was instrumental in collating the Thanet Sites and Monuments Record and was assisted by volunteers from the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit and the Manpower Services Commission. The five years that the record took to research between 1982 and 1987 revealed to David that Thanet’s archaeology was of national importance.

In 1988 The Trust for Thanet Archaeology was formed as a professional archaeological unit for Thanet with Dave serving as its first Director until his retirement in 2003.  The first excavation carried out by the Trust was the recording of a Bronze Age settlement on the foreshore at St Mildred’s Bay in 1988; today’s VM_365 image shows Dave surveying the site using a theodolite.

Formal qualifications through part time study were added to his growing professional reputation including a BSc in archaeological science from the Polytechnic of East London (East London University) followed by an MSc gained through studying Roman and Anglo-Saxon glass. He was awarded a Doctorate by the University of London in 2001 for his thesis on the prehistory of the Isle of Thanet – The Gateway Isle.

Over the years many people heard David speak about his archaeological discoveries on Thanet, or took part in digs with him. Despite battling against the poor health and increasingly reduced mobility caused by a medical condition that had affected him since childhood, he remained an enthusiast for Thanet’s archaeology after his retirement. Dave Perkins last publication on the Bronze Age round barrows of Thanet appeared in the county journal in July 2010 just before his death at the age of 72.

His determination to understand the archaeology of the Isle of Thanet, his enthusiasm and diligent research remain as an inspiration to us as the current custodians of the archaeology of the Isle.

 

 

VM_365 Day 231 Round barrow at Bradstow School, Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Bronze Age, From the Archives, Thanet archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, Uncategorized, VM_365 Project
Excavated round barrow at Bradstow school, Broadstairs
Round barrow excavated at Bradstow school, Broadstairs in 2009

The image for Day 231 of the VM_365 project is of the portion of the ring ditch of a round barrow which was excavated at Bradstow School, Broadstairs  in 2009. The image shows the regular series of segments taken out of the fill of the ring ditch to reveal sections at intervals around the circuit.

The ring ditch is one of a group of four similar ring ditches which are distributed around the terminal of a dry valley where it meets the east facing aspect of a rounded chalk-downland hill,  now occupied by the extensive grounds of the Bradstow school, formerly a private House called Valletta House.

The Bronze Age landscape of the hilltop has been revealed in a remarkably extended series of investigations that began with an excavation carried out in 1910 by Howard Hurd, who featured in the post for Day 40. Hurd revealed a double ring ditch, probably representing a barrow that had been extended or refurbished at some time during its period of use as a funerary monument. Two further ring ditches were recorded in excavations carried out by the Broadstairs and St.Peters Archaeological Society (BSPAS) with the assistance of the British Museum (BM), to the  west and south west of Hurd’s excavation.

The construction of a new facility for Bradstow School within part of the playing field in 2006, resulted in the discovery and excavation of a very large causewayed ring ditch, which may have been a ceremonial enclosure rather than a funerary monument like those that had been discovered by the earlier work. Nearby an unusually small ring ditch contained four graves, an unusual feature that does not fit into the conventional classifications of prehistoric burials in Thanet.

When a former garden site standing  immediately adjacent to the western most of the ring ditches recorded in the BSPAS and BM excavations was chosen as the location of a new swimming pool for the School, there was a further opportunity to explore the Bronze Age landscape of this Broadstairs hill top. Evaluation trenches revealed the circuit of another ring ditch, which was partly excavated before the pool was built. This excavation was carried out nearly a century after Howard Hurd’s discovery of the barrow under the lawns of Valleta House.

The centre of the barrow where a primary burial might be expected was not exposed in the excavation. Two rectangular graves were associated with the ring ditch,  one within the circuit which was severely truncated and contained no human remains. The other grave was perhaps inserted on the periphery of the barrow at a later date, it  contained the remains of a child, lying crouched on its left hand side facing south, with a collared urn placed as an accessory vessel on the southern side of the skull.

The ring ditch excavated in 2009, which had a diameter of approximately 24m continued the linear series of barrows that line the edge of the arc that is formed by the intersection of the dry valley with the hill top.  Each point around the arc commanded a vista across the lower lying land and the sea, which may have been an important factor in the choice of location for these burial mounds in the Bronze Age and of the large causewayed ring ditch which stood very near to them.

VM_365 Day 216 Art and Anglo-Saxon archaeology

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Art Inspired by the Past, From the Archives, Lord of the Manor, Manston, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 216

The image for Day 216 of the VM_365 project is drawn from our slide collection, with reproductions of a series of sketches illustrating aspects of the archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries that are such a significant part of Thanet’s archaeological landscape.

Thanet has been lucky to have had several talented illustrators among its archaeological community.  A drawing by the Trust’s first Director Dave Perkins featured on Day 111 of the VM_365 project. Today’s images were drawn by Len Jay, a founding member of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit, the predecessor of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology and the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society. Len Jay was a trained artist and used his abilities to create imaginative illustrations of some of the significant aspects of the archaeology that the Thanet Unit became involved in.

The images in today’s post illustrate a common phenomenon encountered during the investigation of Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries where archaeologists began to discover that they were not always the first to have dug into the graves furnished with valuable  goods such as weapons, items of jewellery, clothing and vessels in pottery and glass. It is now recognised that many early Anglo-Saxon graves that were were robbed not long after they had been created.

The upper part of the image in today’s post shows a section through a recently created grave, with its occupant dressed in typical costume and accompanied with a shield, sword and knife. In the distance the family are leaving the graveside. In the lower image, two grave robbers have excavated a pit into the centre of the mound that marks the site of the grave, piling the spoil in a heap. They too are seen making a hasty exit with the objects they have recovered.

Grave robbing at an early period has been recognised in many of the large early medieval cemeteries of northern Europe and the phenomenon extends to the cemeteries of East Kent. Although initially it may seem that the motives are relatively simple, recent study has started to consider whether the practise has more complex meanings, perhaps associated with the growth of Christianity and the ambiguous relationship of the converted population with the pagan graves of the pre-Christian era.

Len Jay used his talents as an artist to visualise the processes that were being observed in excavations and explored their meaning through his visual representation, which complemented the body of written material that was also being generated.

 

VM_365 Day 202 The Beck bronze hoard Minnis Bay

Archaeology, Birchington, Bronze Age, Thanet archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 202

Today’s image for Day 202 of the VM_365 project is of the bronze objects, pottery and other artefacts in what has become known as the Beck Hoard.

In 1938 a boy called James Beck noticed some dark patches on the flat wave cut platform on the beach beyond the cliffs at Minnis Bay, Birchington. With the assistance of Antoinette-Powell Cotton who lived nearby at Quex Park, James excavated and recorded several of the pits and the finds within them.

In one of the pits the large bronze hoard shown today’s image was recovered, along with some large sherds of pottery. The hoard contained swords, palstave and socketed axes, spear heads along with smaller bronze objects, ingots and fittings. The details of the Beck hoard were published in Archaeologia Cantiana by G.F. Pinfold, curator of the Powell-Cotton Museum and Major Percy Powell-Cotton.

The pits were once  much deeper, having been cut from a land surface that stood at a higher elevation, which had been truncated by wave action to the level of the eroded platform that lies at the base of the present cliff line.

The Beck hoard is one of several that have been found on the present coastline of the north side of Thanet, the earliest discovery being the Mutrix Farm hoard which was shown in VM_365 Day 81. Rapid erosion of the soft deposits along this coastline is eating its way into the valleys and hill tops that would have been some distance from the sea in the Bronze Age landscape.

VM_365 Day 193 Drawing by Thanet Heritage Pioneer Dr David Perkins

Archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
After Sketches of Historic Thanet 1993.
After Sketches of Historic Thanet, 1993.

Today’s VM_365 image  for Day 193 is a reproduction of one of the illustrations produced by Dave Perkins, the first Director of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology and a founding member of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society.

Dave Perkins began as a gifted volunteer on the Lord of the Manor excavations in the mid 1970’s, progressing through his own intellectual efforts to become instrumental in founding the Trust and becoming the Isle’s first professional archaeologist, to eventually achieving his Doctorate in Archaeology from University College London in 1999.

Dave Perkins had originally been trained as an artist and illustrator and was a great believer in the power of drawings and images to inform and educate people in the subject of archaeology, an aim that lives on in this VM_365 project.

Sketches of Historic Thanet, from which this image is drawn, was Dave’s lively and informative introduction to the archaeology and history of the Isle of Thanet where he was born in 1939 and where he died in 2010.

References

Perkins, D. 1993. Sketches of Historic Thanet. Second Edition. Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society.

VM_365 Day 189 Antiquarian images of Ozengell artefacts

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Ramsgate, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 186

Our image for day 189 of the VM_365 project is of a set of artefacts from a grave at the Anglo Saxon cemetery at Ozengell near Ramsgate, illustrated with pen and watercolour drawings by F.W. Fairholt, to accompany Charles Roach Smith’ s publication Collectiana Antiqua. This image shows that the archaeological investigation of a site can be a long process, in this case spanning a century and a half.

The Ozengell site was first discovered in 1847 and has continued to be explored by excavation until the present day. The practice of archaeological recording and illustration have developed over time and investigation at a site like Ozengell has spanned the development of several new technologies. The objects illustrated in this publication are recognisable and comparable with parallels from this and other sites that were excavated in later periods when illustration was more developed and photography commonplace. Archaeological records represent a growing body of data that can be revisited over time so that new information can be compared with past finds and it is a testament to the quality of Fairholt’s work that these drawings remain a useful resource for understanding this important site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VM_365 Day 76: Dr Thomas and Dr Arthur Rowe

Archaeology, Margate, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
From left to right: Dr. T. Smith Rowe and Dr. A. Rowe.
Dr. Thomas Smith Rowe (Left) and Dr. Arthur Rowe, Margate archaeological investigators.

Dr Arthur Rowe was born in Margate in 1858 and practised as a GP and surgeon until he retired at the age of 51 to concentrate on his other interests, microfossils, the formation of chalk and local history and archaeology in Margate.

Rowe took a great interest in archaeological discoveries that were made as the town of Margate expanded and he was responsible for recording a number of Anglo Saxon burials during roadworks at Half Mile Ride, next to the present cemetery and Council Tip, in 1922; excavating the Iron Age settlement and Roman building found whenTivoli Park Avenue was being constructed in 1924 and recording a number of burials that were eroding from the cliffs at Westgate in 1925.

Rowe was a contemporary of Howard Hurd who had carried out archaeological research in Broadstairs and the two men corresponded by postcard while Rowe was excavating the Tivoli Villa, with Hurd offering Rowe advice on his excavation.

Rowe died of an untreated tooth infection in 1926, while working on a report of his excavations. On his death he bequeathed his collection of Margate books, pictures and prints to  the corporation of Margate and his collection of archaeological artefacts, mainly pottery, to the British Museum.

Arthur Rowe’s Margate collection formed the Rowe Bequest and various parts of the collection are to be found in Margate Library’s Local Studies Collection and at the Margate Museum.

Part of the archaeological collection in the Rowe bequest was probably built up by Arthur Rowe’s father, Thomas Smith Rowe, who is less well known than his son but passed on an interests in local history to his son. Thomas Smith Rowe was also a Doctor and Surgeon and was well respected in Margate. Amongst other appointments he was Senior Visiting Surgeon to the Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary and Honorary Surgeon to the Alexandra Orphanage and Victoria Hospital for Children . Thomas Rowe also took part in the formation of the Margate Centre of St John’s Ambulance Association in 1879.

Dr T. Smith Rowe died in 1907 aged 82.

References

Moody, G. 2008. The Isle of Thanet from Prehistory to the Norman Conquest. The History Press, 20.

Perkins, D. R. J. 1987. The Jutish Cemetery at Half Mile Ride, Margate: A Re-appraisal. Archaeologia Cantiana CIV, 219-236

With thanks to Bob Pantony for his research on the Rowe Bequest presented in a lecture in 2012 celebrating 25 years of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology.

 

VM_365 Day 74. Reverend John Lewis: Thanet’s first Historian

Archaeology, Thanet archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
VM 74
John Lewis 1675-1746

Today’s image is of the Reverend John Lewis, vicar of the parish of Minster and Thanet’s first historian. His book, The History and Antiquities of the Isle of Thanet published in 1736 was a study of the area that had been his home for 30 years. His book covered the etymology of local place names, the geography of the island and local miscellanea but also, and most importantly, he was aware of a growing interest in the survival of ancient features in the landscape and ancient artefacts found locally, which he described in detail. He included plans and illustrations of places and finds of antiquarian interest including the first Bronze Age Hoard recorded on Thanet at Birchington and the standing Bronze Age Barrows at Hackemdown Banks, North Foreland.

Lewis’ work was heavily drawn on by a number of publishers of traveller’s guides and also by Edward Hasted whose Thanet volume of The History of the County of Kent,  published in 1800, largely reproduced Lewis’ account with minor amendments. Lewis’ History and Antiquities remains to this day an interesting and valuable source of local history of the late 16th and 17th centuries which should be a first port of call for anyone interested in the history of the area.