December 2009 (issue 119) - The Sussex Archaeological Society

Library
LIBRARY NEWS
CHURCH FIELDS, MEMBERSHIP
Letters
Library News
On-line at last!
The library catalogue went live on Wednesday 20th September. Six
years after we started to put the catalogue on a database, with
much blood, toil, sweat and tears expended, a generous anonymous
donation finally made it possible. My thanks to all those past and
present volunteers who have worked so hard.
Now it is over to you, the members, to use it. You can find the
catalogue at http://sussexpast.amlib.co.uk/barbican or follow the
links from the Society’s webpage: www.sussexpast.co.uk/library.
For many years we have tried to find a way of making the library
more accessible to those who are unable to climb the stairs to the
second floor. It has now been agreed that such Library users can be
accommodated in the newly refurbished Education Resource Centre
(entrance under the Barbican) when it is not being used by school or
other groups, so ADVANCED BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL and library
staff can bring material down. Since the catalogue is now available
on-line the items needed should be identifiable in advance - please
contact the Library for advice. Afternoons may be more likely to
be available as most school groups leave by 2.30pm. The ERC is
wheelchair accessible and has an accessible toilet.
I list below some recent additions to the Library (all 2009):
COCKE, Thomas
DUNN, Marilyn
McCARTAN, Sinead
MILESON, S.A.
REYNOLDS, Andrew
SAUL, Nigel
Brighton Churches: the need for action
now.
The Christianization
of the Anglo Saxons c.597-700.
Mesolithic Horizons. 2 vols.
Parks in Medieval England.
Anglo Saxon Deviant Burial Customs.
English Church Monuments in the Middle
Ages.
We are grateful to the following for their donations to the Library:
S. Bernard; S. Berry; J. Butler; G. Doel; D. Green; S. Parsons;
R. Salter (WSCC); A. Stallard; A. Vincent.
Esme Evans
Hon. Librarian
NEW
BENEFITS
FOR MEMBERS
At the invitation of the Kent
Archaeological Society, Sussex
Archaeological Society has paid a
small fee to become an Affiliated
Member of KAS which entitles
our members to the following four
benefits:
1) Use of the KAS’s Reference
Library and research facilities at
Maidstone Museum. This contains
a large collection of books on
archaeology and local history,
many archaeological journals, and
a complete set of the KAS’s annual
journal, Archaeologia Cantiana,
first published in 1858. The Library
catalogue can be viewed on-line
at www.kentarchaeology.ac.
The Library is open at all times that
the museum is open (including
Sundays).
2) Access to advice from KAS’s
curator and other experts.
3) Members may attend the
society’s programme of events.
4) Members may purchase books
published by the KAS at members’
rates.
Our Library at Barbican House
will continue to receive copies of the
KAS Newsletter three times a year,
containing news of forthcoming
events, reports of past activities,
letters, reviews and short articles
as well as the annual Archaeologia
Cantiana, which features academic
papers on historical research and
fieldwork relating to Kent .
Lorna Gartside
Membership Secretary
Origins
of
‘Church’ Fields
IN attempting to identify and
map the rectorial glebeland at
East Grinstead, secularized on
the dissolution of Lewes Priory,
in an article in the East Grinstead
Society’s Bulletin 88 (Spring 2006)
I located [to my satisfaction] what
might be termed its ‘home farm’.
This, however, only accounted for
about a third of its known total
area and only one of its three
tenants in 1537. Seeking clues to
the whereabouts of the remainder,
I discussed possibly relevant fieldnames
in the parish, including two
Church Fields, neither anywhere
near the church or each other and
with no indication that the farms to
which they belonged had ever had
any ecclesiastical connection.
I attempted to find alternative
explanations of the name Church
Field in further discussion of the
glebelands in Bulletins 90, 91 and
93, and the short piece on the
subject by D. Macleod in Sussex
Notes & Queries Vol.1, pp.148f.
also proved no help. Progress
reports of excavations at Church
Field, Barcombe, in Sussex Past
& Present gave me another idea
however, which I published in
Bulletin 95 (Autumn 2008) and on
which I should welcome thoughts
or relevant information from
archaeologists and local historians,
not only those working on that
project.
Mention of a possible Roman bath
house discovered in Church Field,
Barcombe, prompts me to wonder
whether that field, and Church
Fields elsewhere, might owe their
names to evidence of old buildings
in the soil, popularly interpreted as
remains of former places of worship,
whether Christian or earlier. If the
age of the Barcombe name and
its explanation can be known, my
theory might prove baseless, but
someone might be able to ascertain
if there are any vestiges of buildings
in or under the Church Fields here.
Note: All East Grinstead Society
Bulletins (ISSN 0308-8685) are in
Barbican House library.
M J Leppard
20 St George’s Court
London Road
East Grinstead RH19 1QP
The Society’s
Changing
Membership
BECAUSE I wanted to discover
how the composition of the Society
had changed since I joined it 60
years ago I recently analysed the
1949 list of members’ names and
addresses.
Of the total number of 1077
individuals (995 members and 82
associates) 41.5% lived in what is
now East Sussex, 33.5% in West
Sussex, 10% in Brighton and
Hove, and 15% outside the county.
Men outnumbered women 60:40,
with 18.5% of the women being
associates: only in one household
was the wife a member and the
husband an associate. A fair proportion
of the members were titled
in one way or another: 4.5% were
peers, baronets, knights, ladies or
‘honourables’; 5% had a military or
naval rank; 5% were clergy.
Today there are 1720 individual
members (with family members
counting as one) but, because
their names and addresses are no
longer published, it is impossible
to make a comparative analysis
with 1949. But I suspect that,
while the geographical distribution
of the membership may not have
changed greatly, it now includes
a much smaller proportion of men
with handles to their names. It is
to be expected that changes in
the make-up of our Society reflect
those in that of society as a whole.
Jeremy Goring
Volunteers
Wanted
THE ESCC Archaeology Section is
looking for volunteers with a good
knowledge of their local area to
help with adding archaeological
data to the computerised Historic
Environment Record (the HER,
formerly known as the Sites and
Monuments Record or SMR). We
are summarising reports from work
carried out through the planning
system, and linking them to our
electronic map or Geographical
Information System (GIS).
We’d provide training which would
give you a very good introduction
to modern archaeological software.
You’d get access to the most upto-date
archaeological information
about your area whilst making a
great contribution to this important
work.
You wouldn’t need previous
experience of using the HER or GIS,
but you will require good computer
skills. Other qualities we are looking
for are:
• local knowledge of the history/
archaeology of an area of East
Sussex and/or Brighton and Hove.
• good writing skills; ability to
summarise complex information in
comprehensible English
• archaeological knowledge;
familiarity with archaeological terms
and interpreting archaeological
reports
• familiarity with large-scale OS
mapping (interpreting contours,
field boundaries etc accurately)
and a good understanding of grid
references.
The work will have to be done
weekdays at County Hall, Lewes
– but times can be arranged to suit
individual volunteers.
Please contact Greg Chuter on
01273 336177, 07500123634, or
gregory.chuter@eastsussex.gov.
uk to discuss further.
Greg Chuter
Assistant County Archaeologist
East Sussex County Council
12 Sussex Past & Present December 2009
www.sussexpast.co.uk www.romansinsussex.co.uk Sussex Past & Present December 2009 13