‘Threat-led research can contribute significantly to local, regional and national research agendas’ (English Heritage: Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment, 2006, 36)
The Trust undertakes threat-led research on a daily basis in response to UK planning legislation (Planning Policy Statement 5), which protects the nation’s historic environment. This work includes desk-based archaeological assessments, historic landscape analysis, walkover surveys, environmental impact statements on cultural heritage, building recording and archaeological fieldwork (including data processing, MAP2 styled assessment of findings, post-excavation analyses, reporting and publication). Projects are conducted to Institute for Archaeologists (IFA) standards and managed in accordance with English Heritage guidance (MoRPHE). For excavation projects the Trust uses and contributes to the Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB).
Recent important development-led excavations carried out by the Trust include those at the Beaney Institute, Canterbury and the Thanet Earth project (see photo, above). Work continues on these and many other projects in post-excavation analyses leading to publication in our own Annual Reports, Occasional Papers, Monographs and other publications. Some smaller scale projects do not lead to full publication, however; we are committed to a programme of making our archive of unpublished reports (those in the public domain) available via this website.
Along with threat-led research, the Trust is also involved in pro-active research contexts. We recently contributed to an acclaimed interdisciplinary project looking at the medieval town of Sandwich, for example, and are currently running the research-led excavations that form part of the ‘Folkestone: a town unearthed’ project (with Canterbury Christ Church University).
Closer to home, the Trust has long been recognised as an authority on the archaeology of Canterbury itself, and are the designated investigating authority for the city. We have developed (with Canterbury City Council) Canterbury’s Urban Archaeological Database (UAD), and new projects to realise the research potential of this body of knowledge are in preparation. The Trust has been instrumental in researching and bringing to publication important finds in Kent more generally over the years, such as the Ringlemere Gold Cup, the Dover Boat, and Romano-British watermills at Ickham. Post-excavation analyses on our recent work at The Meads Anglo-Saxon Cemetery have incorporated CSI Sittingbourne, a groundbreaking community project involving local people in finds conservation.
We have had a key role in the development of the South East Research Framework for the historic environment (SERF), and members of our staff bring research expertise to our work more generally. We have specialists in Prehistory and the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods, and in-house experts in dealing with material culture and buildings, historic landscapes (see desk-based assessment) and environmental archaeology.
For more information, please contact our Research Officer, Jake Weekes.