Part one of the history of the society, part two and three to be posted here later.
The History of Worthing Archaeology Society
Reading through the newspaper cuttings collected by the Society over
the years, one can conjure up images of days gone by, more romantic and a
seemingly simpler way of life.
The history of the Society will be given in decades, using newspaper
cuttings kept by the Society and in Worthing Library Reference section, and
from the Minutes kept from the out start.
1922-1932
The inaugural meeting of the Society was on 2nd February
1922 (2/2/22!), and was reported in the Worthing Gazette. It detailed the
‘Lantern Lecture on 3000 years of Hidden Treasure’ by Mr T Sheppard, down to
the laughter and applauding of the audience. It is interesting to note that an
entrance fee of 1/- and 6d. Was charged (the subscription fee was then 2s.6d.),
and the Mayor was in attendance.
***
The very first excursion took place on 26th April 1922, and
was to Shoreham ‘for the purpose of visiting the churches and places of
interest in the old town’. The Reverend G Holmes Gore received the members at
St Mary’s Church, but ‘it was regretted that the visitors, owing to the
inclement weather, could not examine the outside of the church more
thoroughly’.
On an ‘expedition’ to Cissbury, the members were conveyed in two large
motor ‘chars-a-banc’ through ‘lanes of newly-green hedges and past gardens of
opening apple blossoms being especially delightful…a delightful run back
through leafy lanes completed a most enjoyable day’. Today, our excursions
raise no interest in the local newspapers, let alone in such a descriptive
manner!
***
The Piltdown Skull has always been a bone of contention and it centred
worldwide interest upon Sussex. In January 1922, Mr Llewellyn Thomas gave a
lecture on the infamous skull with the aid of a plaster cast (Worthing Gazette
and Herald). The evidence, he explained, ‘bore ample evidence that these
fragments represented the most primitive truly human skull yet discovered’.
Miss Marion Frost (the initiator of the Society) had been present when Sir
Arthur Keith discussed the skull and Dr Smith Woodward ‘told of some of the
differences of opinion among the experts, one part holding that it was that of
an ape and the other that it was human’.
Jumping forward a few years to
October 1925, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward was persuaded to hold a ‘lantern
lecture’ on ‘the Fossil Man of Piltdown’. This ‘highly scientific lecture
couched in the simplest language was well attended by a large and appreciative
audience’ (Worthing Gazette 21/10/25).
Rather amusingly, in October 1926 (Sussex Daily News), the Society’s
latest lecture was on ‘Forged Antiques – Entertaining Lecture on the Fakers
Art’, given by Mr Thomas Sheppard. He ‘looked forward with some apprehension to
the discoveries that scientists were continually making, as they always crested
a disconcerting attitude of mind towards the future…and science had done a very
great deal in the past to settle very great and important problems…He was
characteristically racy and entertaining and wanted to impress upon them that
things were not always what they seemed’. How ironic!
***
We hear today that coastal erosion is a problem, but it was also a
problem in the 1920’s. A lecture in October 1922 told that Sussex was ‘slowly
but surely being washed away’ (Worthing Herald 28/10/22). Miss Gerald also
mentioned erosion during a lecture on Sussex Maps in December 1922: ‘three
centuries earlier, there was a piece of common land over 50 acres stretching
between the Marine Hotel and the high water mark, although even then, this
land, while high and dry at low tide, was almost awash daily’ (Worthing Gazette
20/12/22). The articles describing this lecture are very interesting.
***
Today the Society is moving forward, having recently introduced the
Field Unit, which is dealing with the practical side of archaeology. I have
only been a member for three years and I do not know when the Society withdrew
from practical work.
In 1922, excavations were carried out at Cissbury, but work was to be
carried out by ‘experts’ only (Worthing Gazette 31/5/22) rather than an
enthusiast ‘causing untold damage’ and in 1923 members partook of a Flint Hunt
at Black Patch along with the Brighton and Hove archaeological Club.
Also during 1923, a kitchen
midden was excavated at Muir House in Broadwater (opposite St Mary’s Church,
now under the shopping precinct). A dense bed of shells was uncovered, at it’s
widest it was two feet deep. It included oyster, cockles, whelks, periwinkles
and mussels. The oyster shells contained a ‘V’ shaped notch, characteristic of
old methods of opening the shell. It was believed that although the Romans
‘notched’ the shell in the same way, similar features on shells excavated in
Hull, were found in association with tobacco pipes and other 17th
century material. The deposit was 12 feet by 20 feet and it was estimated that
there were at least 300 bushels of shells.
During the same year, an Earthworks Sub-committee was set up, a report
written up on the excavation at Black Patch (in Sussex Archaeological
Collections volume LXV) and a letter sent to the Duke of Norfolk requesting
permission to excavate on Harrow Hill. As a note to all those currently taking
part in the practical work, in 1923 labour was hired at £3.5.0 to help with the
excavation! Permission to excavate at Harrow Hill was granted on 10 February
1924.
The Earthworks Sub-committee drew up a list of items to be purchased
for the dig: tool hut fitted with shelves, 10 inch pulley, 18 ft ladder, 6 (30
ft) poles, tripod, 18 planks, tarpaulin, wheel barrow, 2 baskets, 50 ft rope,
hooks, bucket, dusters, broom, pointed shovels. This is slightly different to
the equipment we have today. It was then requested in November 1925 that the
above items be sold, with the exception of the shed!
The Society also took an interest in conservation and in August 1923,
the following letter was sent to ‘the Times’: ‘The members of Worthing
Archaeological Society have learned with grave concern the possibility of
further damage occurring to the area immediately surrounding Stonehenge, and beg
to urge the authorities concerned to do their utmost to preserve one of the
most valuable archaeological sites this country possesses’.
The Mayor’s Special Appeal for funds on behalf of the preservation of
Cissbury was successful and the ‘full sum required was forthcoming’. In 1925,
the acquisition was complete and ‘that most important archaeological site is
now the property of the Nation.’
A Scientific Sub-committee was set up in 1927 to act as a Regional
Survey, with the object of recording ‘in a systematic manner, information
concerning such objects as Roman Remains, windmills, place names, photographs
of disappearing Worthing, etc’.
Miss M Frost asked members for photographs of old buildings of
Worthing, as she believed that ‘the custody and management of photographic
record collections would ultimately rank among the most valuable of many
services which their public institutions and clubs could render to the nation’
(Sussex Daily News 12/1/27). Following these appeal two collections from Messrs
Laver and Francis were received. Where are they now?
The Society was also concerned for the preservation of the South Downs.
In March 1926, a resolution was proposed that the Mayor be requested to
‘communicate with other Mayors of boroughs bordering on the South Downs, with
reference to convening a meeting to discuss the best means of preserving the
outlines of the Downs for future generations’.
Although Cissbury was now safe, it was not being kept in good
condition, there was a lot of ‘rubbish scattered around’, therefore the Society
requested the Town Council to provide wire baskets and a man to empty them
after every public holiday and at suitable intervals.
As a footnote to this section, a letter was sent by Sussex
Archaeological Society to the editor of the Worthing Herald (19/5/23)
requesting volunteers join them in marking any features (eg, camps, moats,
mounds etc) which were not shown on maps of the day.
***
Does anybody remember the Silver Queen and Will o Wisp Coach companies?
The Society requested quotes for outings in May 1923. The Will o Wisp could not
take so many people and the Silver Queen charged for the whole coach even if it
was not filled. Looking through the Minutes, Southdown was mentioned a lot
after that!
***
In 1925, an invitation to visit the excavations at Harrow Hill was
extended not only to Society members, but also to members of the Sussex
Archaeological Society, the Portsmouth Innominate Club, the Prehistoric Society
of East Anglia, the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Club and the Littlehampton
Nature and Archaeological Circle, and over one hundred people from these
societies attended.
***
The General Strike in 1926 caused some difficulties with the summer
outings; one was postponed and two were cancelled. But one outing that went
ahead was to the Old Quaker Meeting House in Thakeham known as the Blue Idol. I
grew up in West Chiltington, which is close to Thakeham, and I have never heard
of it. It was a half-timbered 15th century building.
Jumping back to 1922, the Society paid a visit to Sompting Church,
which was listed as among the twenty buildings in the country to date prior to
1000AD (Worthing Gazette 23/8/22). Also in 1922, the Curator of Brighton
Museum, Dr E Curwen led a trip to the earthworks above Storrington, where he
‘traced the valley entrenchment and pointed to signs of a Leper Settlement’
(Worthing Gazette 6/9/22).
I now live in Tarring and I also did not know that the stem and bowl of
Tarring Church font was then in the garden of a Melbourne clergyman! How did it
end up there? The Rev Charles Lee had requested it’s return, but at that time
had heard nothing (Worthing Gazette 25/7/23). Has it been returned?
***
I am now drawing to the end of the Society’s first ten years and I
would like to end on a light note. Many of the lectures over the decade appear
to have been very interesting, but some were a little more bizarre!
In 1923, Mr Arthur Beckett gave a lecture on Sussex Folklore. ‘He took
his hearers with him for an imaginary walk through the romantic district of the
Downs from East Sussex westwards – a delightful experience, with such a guide
as Mr Beckett, who enlivened the excursion with humour, legend, verse and song’
(Worthing Herald 3/11/23). He spoke of a cannonball lodged in the face of Beachy
Head (a relic of a sea battle in 1690), old Southdown shepherds, of smugglers
and how the Long Man of Wilmington came to be, but the most strange story was
that of a gravestone in Storrington Churchyard with the following epitaph:
‘Here lies the body of Edward Hide,
We laid him here because he died,
We had rather it had been his father,
If it had been his sister we should not have missed her,
But since it’s Honest Ned no more shall be said’! (An early Pam Ayres?)
He then talked about Chanctonbury Ring and concluded on a poetic note –
‘there are fairies on the Downs – people who had not seen them lacked vision or
sympathy, or both’. He then recited ‘some delightful verses relating to his own
experiences of them.
Mr A Hadrian Allcroft gave a lecture on Stonehenge and Tradition
(Worthing Gazette 29/10/24). He said ‘more common sense was needed’ and went on
to scoff at the ‘sun-worship theory and endeavouring to prove from tradition
that Stonehenge was set up to commemorate the death in battle of a number of
British nobles'. He advanced the theory (Worthing Herald 1/11/24) that it was
of ‘Saxon date and that the condition of the stones did not support the great
antiquity claimed for it…that it was originally a moot or meeting place and
became a memorial of British nobles slain there’. Mr Millbank Smith, a previous
President of the Society was ‘delighted to have some of his doubts settled’.
In 1928 Mr Noel Heaton lectured with ‘first hand knowledge’ on the
Ancient Civilisation of Crete. How old was he?
The lecture in February 1929 strayed a long way from archaeology. Sir
Richard Gregory’s address was entitled the Sun and Stars! Remarking that the
subject though ‘not connected to archaeology, it was a very old one, and might
be of interest to them’ (Worthing Herald 23/2/29).
In November 1929 the members were entertained by the medieval myth of
the Barnacle Goose! The lecture was entitled ‘Barnacles’. To cut a long story
short, a barnacle turned into a goose and became the subject of religious
discussion from the 13th century onwards (Worthing Gazette
20/11/29). The point being discussed was ‘whether the bird, being born of fish,
might be eaten during Lent’. Goose would be refreshing after eating so much
fish. If you want to know the whole story, you will have to read the article!
Dr Mortimer Wheeler paid a tribute during his lecture in 1931 to ‘the
importance of work carried out by the President at Piltdown which had resulted
in giving Sussex place in the history of mankind unsurpassed by any other
locality”.
And finally…
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