Report for SHAL year ending April 2023.
By Rosemary Stutchbury
Firstly an apology for not being with you for the AGM but a long planned precovid holiday date clashed.
This last year has been full of excitement for SHAL members now over 50 strong and the coming year, also holds lots of possibilities for exploring our lovely historic parish.
We’ve has a wide range of talks this year starting with an over view of the Marsh by Andrew Mayfield. His work with the Fifth Continent group was finishing and he is currently working in Greenwich, but clearly there are still lots of questions to be researched about the Marsh and its development.
In May we were excited to hear Joe Ahmet talking about the portable antiquities scheme and his work at the British museum . We were allowed to handle some of the objects, and his explanation of how and why the scheme works was masterly.
At this stage Richard Taylor had confirmed the dates for our dig in August, and we spent the next few months raising funds and organising the various requirements. Our thanks to the landowners and the local firms who supported the provision of every thing from tools to loos. I don’t think any of us had realised how complicated the logistics of such a venture would be. A special thanks to the Committee too, who suddenly found themselves with a lot of extra work.
Richard was very pleased with the results of the dig and praised SHAL for its enthusiasm and hard work. All being well a further dig is planned for August.
We managed to fit in a trip to the Cheriton cemetery in June but the planned Rochester trip was cancelled as only six people signed up. Perhaps members would like to let us know, whether long distance trips are not really popular.
After all the dig excitement, we hosted Keith Parfitt to talk about the Dover Guildhall and Andrew Richardson to talk about the Lossenham project. The latter was an inspiration for our own idea of a Lympne project at some stage.
This was further emphasised by Cathy Goodwin, who spoke in November about her authorship of the Stanford History and how she tackled almost singlehandedly researching , writing and published a most impressive study.
We held our usual December social much enjoyed by all, and then in January Imogen Corrigan came talk about the Vikings. Much maligned in popular folklore and history, she was able to correct our misconceptions, and let us admire their art, poetry and music as a counter balance to their bloody reputation.
In February we enjoyed a talk by Andy Linklater on death and burials which contrary to our expectations, was not at all morbid and very informative.
Our March talk saw Richard come to report on the dig findings and enthuse us for more digging this summer, hopefully not in quite such dry, dusty weather. The field felt more like the African Savannah than green, damp Lympne. Lots of excitement about the Dig which all being well will go ahead on August 14[th] in Beacon field. Richards tells us the Portus Lemanis and the settlements attached to it was very much more important than thought originally and this is partly due to our explorations and the finds. So we should all be feeling pleased with ourselves.
So thank you to members, the committee and all those who have helped us keep SHAL alive and active this year.
Rosemary
SHAL
Studying History and Archaeology in Lympne
Registered Charity No. 1168727 Unaudited Accounts
| INCOME | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
|---|---|---|
| Membership Fees | 710.00 | 710.00 |
| Donations on the Day | 99.00 | 47.00 |
| Other Donations | 50.00 | 30.00 |
| Roman Dig 1 Donations | 1050.00 | |
| Gift Aid | 146.24 | |
| Smile Amazon | 10.56 | 6.73 |
| Visits and Events | 143.00 | |
| Total Income | 2065.80 | 936.73 |
| EXPENDITURE | ||
| Venue Hire | 206.15 | 86.52 |
| Speakers and Events | 395.00 | 510.00 |
| Roman Dig 1 Expenditure | 1078.62 | |
| KAS Membership | 25.00 | 25.00 |
| Insurance | 96.00 | 96.00 |
| Refreshments | 20.80 | 25.54 |
| Tythe Maps and Pens | 50.98 | |
| Rembrance Wreath | 21.63 | 21.00 |
| Other Expenditure | 45.80 | |
| Total Expenditure | 1843.20 | 860.84 |
| Surplus | 222.60 | 75.89 |
| ASSETS AND LIABILITITES | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
| Cash in hand and bank B/fwd | 1340.67 | 1264.78 |
| Income | 2065.80 | 936.73 |
| Expenditure | -1843.20 | -860.84 |
| Balance Carried Forward | 1563.27 | 1340.67 |
| REPRESENTED BY | ||
| Metro Bank | 1553.27 | 1330.67 |
| Cash in Hand | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| Total | 1563.27 | 1340.67 |