Lossenham Project Blog

Archaeology at Lossenham has progressed well since the last newsletter, with the Isle Heritage team and project volunteers working hard through the Spring, Summer and early Autumn. At Lossenham Priory, the excavation of the Carmelite church of St Mary continues. The complete footprint of the church is now revealed, a narrow rectangular building measuring approximately 26m by 6m, with buttresses at the corners and along the south wall. Numerous burials have been identified inside the church. One of these contained a lead coffin, which was lifted in early August. This will soon be opened. It is likely to date to the late 1400s or early 1500s, and must contain a wealthy and powerful person, perhaps one of the Lords of Lossenham.

We have also been working at Castle Toll, the large earthwork complex that lies over 1km north-east of the Priory, at the end of the Lossenham ridge. Work here is in its early stages, with a series of small test pits. One area excavation area has been completed. The latter investigated the intersection of a north-south ditch with a trackway that approaches the site along the top of the ridge from the south-west, both features having been picked up on the geophysical survey carried out by the Hastings Area Archaeological Research Group (HAARG). The trackway is flanked by ditches, one of which produced pottery provisionally dated to the Late Iron Age or perhaps early Roman period (circa 100 BC to AD 50).

A third site has now been identified on the farm, in the corner of Guestling Field, about 270m east of the Priory. This is an iron bloomery, comprising a furnace with associated slag-filled gully. The gully was located by the HAARG geophysical survey in 2021, and initially investigated with two trenches that Winter. Recently (September 2023) we excavated this area, and were delighted to locate the actual furnace. The type of slag suggests this bloomery dates to either the Iron Age (about 750 BC to AD 43) or Anglo-Saxon period (about AD 450-1066). Charcoal recovered should enable radiocarbon dating to determine when this bloomery operated. Either an Iron Age or Anglo-Saxon date would represent a very significant discovery, as these are much rarer than equivalent Roman, medieval or post-medieval sites in the Weald. Watch this space, and for regular updates on the archaeological programme at Lossenham visit: facebook.com/isleheritage.

Andrew Richardson

The reading and transcription of 15th- and 16th-century wills can reflect a moment in history. A name becomes a person with family, possessions and often land. We might learn who someone was married to and/or whether they had children living. Siblings, godchildren and cousins might be named, although the latter was a broad term for a variety of kin. Connections with other local families can be made and the testator’s devotion to faith and the afterlife surmised through bequests to church and community. Very occasionally there are glimpses into more personal family issues, such as wayward or absent children, or lack of trust between offspring. Children often received legacies of different value, depending on age, entitlement or favour. The value of bequests in a will can be an indication of the testator’s financial situation. But what can we then conclude about his daily life, or hers, insofar as married women made wills? Does the will describe the home or the testator’s occupation? References to land rarely suggest how it was used.

In the case of one Thomas Fowle of Newenden, who died in 1584, virtually none of the above is disclosed in the will, which was described as ‘nuncupative’. This means that it was delivered orally before witnesses and only recorded later in the church court register provided the court officials were satisfied the declaration represented the deceased's last wishes. It suggests that Thomas was then on his death bed with witnesses gathered around him. He bequeathed his goods, house and land to his wife and five shillings to the parish poor for bread and drink at his burial. Beyond that, Thomas’s life would have been a closed book, were it not for another document – the inventory of all his ‘goodes and Cateles’.

His will is sparse, but his inventory covers several pages.

Let us look first of all at Thomas’s house. Several rooms are mentioned: ‘the parler’, ‘the halle’ and ‘the kechyn’ and each has a room above. From the furniture and items found there, the ‘halle’ seems to be the main living space, with fire implements, a table and seating for a number of people.

The ‘parler’ also has a table, seating, two cupboards and a number of pewter plates and dishes. Is this where the family received guests? It has two painted wall hangings, which suggests it was more on show. A sword and musket (‘calyver’) are also listed there. Perhaps this was Thomas’s particular room, off the 'high' end of the hall, at the opposite end of the hall to the ‘entrye'. Of the kitchen we know nothing, it is not separately described. Within the four upper rooms, (a fourth described as being ‘over the entrye’), are a total of eight bedsteads with mattresses, coverlets and bolsters. It seems likely that the bedroom over the ‘parler’ was used by Thomas and his wife, while the ‘chamber over the halle’ with four bedsteads may have been for children. The two other upper rooms had one bed each.

This then was a sizeable, although not large, house. Much of the furniture was ‘joyned’ and therefore well made. Painted hangings and plenty of bedding suggest a comfortable home.

Outside there was a ‘mylke hovse’ and a ‘shope’, both of which had rooms above. There was also a ‘buttrye’ in which there was a truckle bed and a number of storage vessels. In addition, this property had a stone courtyard with a ‘grete beame and skales to waye marchandyes’.

Further on, listed amongst the tools of husbandry, are some quantities of lead. Could Thomas have been in the business of buying and selling lead? This was commonly used for pipes, pewter and roofing so would have been in demand. Like many other households with land to farm, it’s evident that Thomas’s produced much of their food and other necessities. There are tools for processing linen and wool, woodworking tools, dairy implements and farming apparatus, along with oats, wheat, barley and malt. Oxen were used for ploughing; a small number of cattle and sheep were kept, plus chickens, geese and bees, which produced honey and wax for candles.

From Thomas Fowle’s will alone, he was little more than a name on a document. By linking him to an inventory, a window opened onto a busy, human landscape, broadening understanding of the man in his surroundings and inviting further questions and research.

Susan Callow

Lossenham has an illustrious past as a centre for prayer, with the Carmelite priory at its hub. Scrolling past the dissolution and the intervening centuries, the estate and the village now find themselves in the Church of England benefice of Tenterden, colourfully known as Tent ROX — Tenterden, Rother and Oxney. The nine churches are led by the Team Rector the Reverend Lindsay Hammond. The former NatWest employee and landscaper was ordained shortly before his twenty-ninth birthday and has been in Tenterden since 2011.

He says that despite the outward wealth around here there are “pockets of quite considerable deprivation.” He told the newsletter: “Because these pockets exist in what is predominantly a fairly affluent area they can be invisible.”

The benefice is involved in two schemes to help those in need. The Tenterden Family Food Bank collects food from members of the congregation, with contributions from Waitrose and others, to be made up into food parcels for those in immediate need, rationed on an emergency basis.

A second, more recent project, is the Old School House Larder, operating out of the community hub in Church Road, Tenterden. Lindsay Hammond says the scheme keeps around forty families afloat. It depends mainly on cash donations to buy food. “That hints that we do have in our midst families who are going through quite tough times,” he says.

Team vicar the Reverend Jeannette Kennett, a former primary school teacher, says there are problems that are typical of rural environments. One is the lack of public transport. The buses don’t run reliably, hospital appointments can be difficult to get to. “It leads to isolation and loneliness across the generations,” she says.

The benefice also helps run two Christmas schemes, which have become intertwined. The Christmas Big Wrap is a collection of donated gifts handed out to children of families helped by the Old School House Larder. Eight hundred presents were distributed last year.

Christmas Cheer is a direct cash appeal that raised the best part of £15,000 last Christmas, for 140 individuals. That money goes to families identified by the schools’ family liaison officers. The church has no direct contract with them and doesn’t know who they are.

The schools reports back on the reactions of the recipients. Lindsay Hammond tells of one family with an elderly man living next door. “They said they’d never had the wherewithal to have him round for Christmas but now they could this year.”

Jeannette Kennett calls stories like that “heart-warming.” She says everyone has the capacity for compassion but can’t extend it to their next door neighbour if they can’t feed their own family.

Lindsay Hammond says one thing the Church of England does well is work with others to make things happen. He holds out the prospect of future cooperation with Lossenham, “to make a difference.”

If the Lossenham Project has an ethos it’s about making the most of the estate in all its aspects. Our artist-in-residence Russell Burden takes care to scoop up every element Lossenham has to offer to mould into art of great beauty. He’s previously recorded sounds around the estate, from the crackling of logs on a bonfire, to wind through the trees and the song of the night birds. These he meshed with instruments, voices and electronic loops. The meditative album that emerged, Lossenham Frequencies, is shot through with the sheer presence of the place. And a very fine listen to boot.

His latest work centres on cameraless image-making at its rawest, using two print techniques: lumen and cyanotype. In the first photographic paper is immersed in Lossenham’s ponds. Seeds floating on the surface and ivy pond weed take on an ethereal, three-dimensional quality when seen from underneath.

The second technique, cyanotype, involves watercolour paper treated with compounds of iron that react to water, light and the naturally occurring iron that abounds in the Wealden landscape.

“The joy is in the surprise,” Russell says. Sometimes the environment yields images both reminiscent of the hills of Mount Carmel and the local wetland map. The pictures serve as a reminder of the monks who once lived harsh, hermit lives in Palestine under the Rule of St Albert. They found refuge in a new priory at Lossenham, as they retreated from the Muslim re-conquest.

Next on Russell’s packed agenda is reviving the pottery project that he and Philip Warren began last year. They’ve proved that Lossenham’s clay performs well in kilns fashioned from the very same material. They’re looking for enthusiasts to help with the next phase of making ceramics, both practical and artistic. To register an interest contact: russell@lossenham.org.uk

A famous sports coach once said 'Success should never be measured against the ideal. Instead, measure success as the difference between where you are now, and where you started'. A line which should be emblazoned across the shirts of Newenden Cricket Club, for over the past ten years we have taken a club on the brink of extinction to cementing our place as one of the finest village sides in the county.

There is no better example of how far we have come than our disappointment at finishing second in the top division of the league this year. To any other side, that would be deemed to be a superb achievement, but we have become so accustomed to success that anything else is deemed to be failure. This is where we need to have a little perspective. As painful as it was, we finished on the same points as the eventual winners, who are a massive club, who run five teams, and play at the top of the Kent League on a Saturday. In theory it is a total mismatch, but we could only be separated by the very finest of margins, as we lost out on net run rate.I could not be prouder of what the team has achieved and only a brave man would bet against us taking that final step next season, as the only true barometer of success is how you bounce back from failure.

ADDING TO THE TROPHY CABINET

The club has enjoyed considerable success as well this season. We retained our Wealden Wallop title, the local T20 competition, lifting the trophy with an emphatic win over Northiam in the final, which was held at Tenterden's beautiful ground in July. We also managed to secure the coveted Newenden Sixes trophy. This year's tournament was the most competitive yet, with five top sides taking to the field. It was very satisfying to see both the Newenden teams make it to the final, with the Newenden league side coming out on top against last year's winners, Charlie's Angels.

EVENTS

The club hosted some brilliant events this year.  We all enjoyed a wonderful day at Winston's match, a game played in the memory of former club stalwart Winston Cuthbert. It saw well over hundred people at the NCG with a Newenden side taking on Tim Piper's eleven, made up of old school friends and a few NCC alumni. It was a real celebration, one which we certainly intend to replicate next year, we also raised over £1400.00 for the Sam West Foundation.

We never thought that an England international would turn out for the club but we were lucky enough to have two this year, when Devon Malcolm and Monty Panesar played in our Chairman's Day match in July. It was a superb day out, though not for Monty as he was deposited into the river on several occasions. We also managed to raise £400 for Cancer Research.

The annual Overs/Unders game was another close fought affair, this time with the youngsters coming out on top. It is now 2-2 in the series, can't wait for us old boys to regain the lead next year.

The Newenden Sixes was a great success, some may say the best yet, as five teams took to the field for a highly competitive tournament. It is fast becoming one of the high points of the calendar. I would like to make a special mention to Alex Balfour for providing the music on the day, he did a phenomenal job keeping the atmosphere at peak levels. We also raised over £600 for the club in the process.

Trev's Big Bash was a brilliant day out towards the end of the season, with Newenden pipping my old Biddenden side in a thriller. We raised £700 for the local hospice too.

We were lucky enough to host our annual awards dinner in March and it was a great evening enjoyed by one and all. We raised nearly £5K from the evening which is so important for a club of our size. We hope to see a record number of attendees at next year's event, I will be circulating the date shortly.

TEAS

I cannot write a season overview without mention of the teas, which have been truly memorable this year. We have had so many wonderful teas laid on, I cannot mention them all.

Everyone has done brilliantly, with the level of effort going into these being truly unbelievable, so much so that they have started to become a bit of a social media sensation. Thank you to everyone that made our teas so special this year. The Tea Trophy winner is going to be a tough call.

ON THE FIELD

As our reputation grows as does our playing membership. We fielded the most players in a season ever this year, which bodes very well for the future. Next season we will be entering a second team into the league which will enable us to focus on bringing more juniors into the fold, which can only strengthen the club further. As the team's achievements continue to go from strength to strength so do our individual performances. There were so many superb efforts that I do not have space to list them all.

Batting performances have been down on previous years, but the leading run scorer across the Sunday league and friendly games was Mike Parr with 299, closely followed by Ben Browning on 258 and Dan Edwards on 227.

Three centuries were scored this year by Dan Edwards, Mike Parr and Jack Greig, who had a great first season with the club.

The bowling cup saw a change of hands, with Harry Bradney bagging up the trophy with an impressive 24 wickets,  which saw him finish joint top of the Division 1 bowling charts, he was closely followed by Garry Smith (21) and Dan Edwards (19).

There were three 5-wicket hauls collected by Dan Edwards, Mike Bellhouse and Ian Jones, all in the league.

The fielding has been exceptional this season, with some brilliant catches being taken. Ben Browning and Mike Parr leading the way with 8 a piece, and the evergreen Charlie Sloan continuing to be incredible behind the stumps. He has been key to so much of the club's success.

THANK YOU

I would like to thank all those that have worked so hard to make the club such a success.

Firstly, we would like to thank Guy Rummery for his superb work down at the ground. Every week the NCG looks absolutely immaculate, how he does is it a mystery. The ground is under water throughout the winter and he transforms her into one of the best places to play cricket in the country. It is so good to hear opposition sides saying what a wonderful ground we have, it makes us all very proud. Thank you Guy. I would also like to thank our umpires, who have done a terrific job this year. Mick Browning and Giles Moffatt have been brilliant all season, exuding a calm authority, sometimes under intense pressure. Special mention must also go to Mike Kutner and Martin Norris for stepping in to help out.

I cannot write a season overview without mentioning budding club legend, Sophie James. Sophie has taken on scoring duties for the past couple of seasons, which is a thankless task, but she has been wonderful this year and brings a little ray of sunshine with her to every game. 

I must also acknowledge Garry Smith, who does so much behind the scenes, he is a true clubman. This season we have hosted more big events than ever before and he is more than happy to don the apron and slave over a hot BBQ for hours to make sure we are all fed. Still maintain his burgers are the best this side of the Rother.

Finally I would like to say a couple of farewells to two of our committee. Ingrid Nilson, has been the club secretary for nearly decade, and has been exceptional in her role. It is no mean feat keeping the rest of us under control. Ingrid always brought a calmness and logic to proceedings that will be sorely missed. We wish her and Ake all the very best on their new Dorset adventure.

We also will be saying goodbye to Patch Boland this year after three significant years as club treasurer. Patch has been instrumental in transforming the finances of the club. He has introduced a cashless system which makes everything so much easier to manage. He has also put up with the countless early morning messages from yours truly for which I admire his patience. It is a sad to lose Patch, but we wish him well as his work takes him overseas. So that is it for 2023, it is a season that will live long in the memory, with so many wonderful days enjoyed together down at the NCG. Roll on 2024.