Lectures

3rd April 2024: Kent Archives and Local History Service

AAt our April meeting we welcomed Elizabeth Finn, the Kent Archive Service Officer to speak about the Kent Archives and Local History Service, based in Maidstone.

The Kent Archives consist of 12 km of documents, 14.5 km of shelving and 694,000 online catalogue entries. The archives include local authority records such as KCC quarter sessions, Cinque Port and parish records from central and west Kent, protestant nonconformist church records, Bishops’ transcripts, wills, inventories and probate accounts, records for hospitals, schools and the poor law, West Kent regiment records and manorial records. The oldest document held in the Kent Archive is a charter from Wihtred, King of Kent from 699, which is possibly the oldest document in any English record office. Medway and Metropolitan Kent, and Canterbury records (held in the Cathedral Library) are generally not kept in the Kent Archives.

The role of the service is to “collect, preserve, share and explore”. A potential new acquisition is likely to be accepted if it relates to Kent, complements existing holdings, could engage new and existing audiences and there is a demand for it, for example family history. Documents are stored in environmentally monitored strongrooms wrapped in acid-free paper, and cataloguing all the items is a core job for the archivists. The centre also holds exhibitions, tours, and talks, and has a library of local interest books and OS maps.

There are 1,200 online catalogue entries for Wye. One of the earliest documents is a 1391 “grant of messuage” in Latin and dated the Thursday of the eve of St Thomas the Martyr, incorporating a bundle of seals in protective wrapping. Other records include: a 1597 court case concerning the theft of a silver spoon; a payment of £4 and 4 shillings to widow Jane Jennett after her house burnt down in 1661; the Will of grocer John Coulter (died 1669/70) and inventory including a musket/sword, looking glass, 103 pounds of pewter and £118 of stock; a 1695/6 petition to the keeper of the great seal to ask other parishes for charitable donations towards the rebuilding of Wye Church (the £1,500 needed could not be afforded because of high poor relief); a 1778 inventory of the contents of the Flying Horse and description of rooms; in 1779 the replacement of the bridge wheel tracks and a request for a higher parapet to stop animals falling into the river; and from the Spring Grove archives a letter from Roger Horncastle to Dorothy Brett explaining he cannot marry her because he has lost his voice! There is also a 1812 map sketch for a canal between Ashford and Wye, and a map showing land in Sevington belonging to the Lady Johanna Thornhill charity dated 1743.

Elizabeth concluded her talk with her favourite items - a silk embroidery bound bible from 1650 and the burial records for Richard Plantagenet at Eastwell 1550, supposed illegitimate son of Richard III.

Margaret Bray