2026 – Canterbury Medieval Weekend and much more

As this is the first KCHH blog for 2026, I’m going to outline what will be happening this year involving members of the Kent History Postgraduates (KHP) group, and linking to CAMEMS and Kent MEMS, as well as other groups and organisations in Canterbury and Kent more widely. To a large extent I’ll work chronologically, but here I will mention our flagship event, the Canterbury Medieval Weekend on the 1^st to the 3^rd of May: https://history-weekends.org and more on this below. Of course, as we go through the year other events will happen but for now, I hope this is helpful and I shall look forward to meeting readers of the blog throughout 2026.

For January, a short note that the Lossenham/Rother Levels wills group will be meeting online on Monday 19 January. This will give members of this voluntary group the chance to report on what they have been doing, and to hear from Sue Hatt how the allied Tenterden Custumal project is progressing. Then the following week we’ll be holding the first KHP meeting of the year to hear Jason Mazzocchi’s presentation on the 3 oyster maps produced as part of the late Elizabethan/early Jacobean dispute involving Faversham over the local oyster grounds.

February brings a change of gear because as well Angela Broomfield’s presentation to the KHP group and a more informal online meeting of the wills group, we have on Saturday 14 February, 10.30am to 4.30pm in the Templeman Library the ‘Exploring Kent’s History: documents, maps and other sources’ study day. The day is being organised and led by Kent staff (Karen Brayshaw, David Rundle and me), with MEMS postgraduates and alumni (Avril Leach, Jason Mazzocchi and Jacqueline Spencer), so do “Join us for a study day at the University of Kent’s Special Collections and Archives to explore a range of sources, from pictorial maps to textual indentures, as well as examining the early development of antiquarian scholarship beginning in the Tudor period with William Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent. Through a series of workshops, we will investigate how historians assess and employ such sources in their own research into the county’s history. The day is designed to appeal to those new to studying regional history and those with some experience – together we will explore ideas about researching and writing about Kent’s past.”

Free parking is available on the university’s campus. Tea and coffee will be provided, but please bring your own lunch or you can use one of the catering outlets on campus. Booking is required because places are limited, so if you wish to attend, please email Jason at [email protected] with the subject ‘Exploring Kent’s History’ to register interest and for further details. Once you have registered interest, tickets will be available to purchase through CAMEMS: Student £10 for the day, CAMEMS Friend £20 and others £25. Like the Canterbury Medieval Weekend 2026, any income after costs will go towards CAMEMS bursaries for postgraduates studying at MEMS.

Then on the evening of Thursday 19 February at the Dominican Guest House (Beerling Hall), off St Peter’s Lane in Canterbury, there will be a programme of 3 talks under the heading ‘Canterbury’s ‘Blackfriars’ through the Ages’. For “The Dominicans established their Friary by the Stour in the mid-13th century, and mediaeval wills provide insights into the life of the Friary before its dissolution in 1538. The buildings then became associated with the weaving industry of the immigrant Walloon community. Plans and drawings provide an exceptional record of the layout and appearance of the Friary in the late C.16th and early C.17th with the Friary church ruinous by 1627, the main gate demolished in 1787 and with much of the site developed for housing in the early C 19th.” Thus, I’ll be exploring the friars in late medieval Canterbury, Jackie Eales will examine secular uses of the Blackfriars after the Reformation and Clive Bowley will investigate the topography of the Blackfriars in the post-Dissolution era.

Please note, doors will open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Tickets cost £10 per person (to include a glass of wine) and booking is advised (but pay at the door) For booking, please contact Alan Robertson on 07798 645141 or email [email protected]

March sees more events involving members of the KHP, including Christine Brandl’s presentation to the group, and the wills group will be meeting in person. Additionally, we’ll again be at ‘Dover at Night’ on the evening of Friday 20 March, 5pm to 9pm. Last year we were at St Mary’s church but this year we may be at the Maison Dieu, I’ll confirm nearer the time because we’ll be delighted to see you and this year the theme is ‘Dover’s Past, Present and Ecological Future through the Maison Dieu’ which allows us to examine medieval and Tudor Dover, as well as much more recent times using ‘History in a Suitcase’. If this sounds intriguing and fun, do come and find us!

The chance to give talks is useful and several from Kent MEMS (current and past) will be doing this during 2026. I hope to report on some of these in future blogs but for today, I’ll just mention that I’ll be speaking to Wye Historical Society on Wednesday 4 March on migration in late medieval Canterbury and Kent. I think this is very timely for several reasons, one of which is that an edited collection, with the working title ‘Migration through the Ages in Kent’, should be with the publishers by then. Indeed, the 2 editors, David Killingray and Elizabeth Edwards, are currently finishing off the Introduction and checking the chapters. This is an extremely exciting development for several reasons and hopefully I’ll be able to report on it further very shortly.

Currently April brings the regular monthly meetings, but otherwise the diary looks far fuller with various trustee and committee meetings, which may develop into something of interest to readers. We’ll also be well underway concerning working with Karen Brayshaw in Kent’s Special Collections and Archive on the exhibition for the Canterbury Medieval Weekend. This will have 3 strands: Chaucer’s Pilgrims and Canterbury; Pilgrimage – medieval and modern, and Historic Maps. Ryan Perry has kindly agreed to oversee the one on Chaucer, Torin Brown Canterbury Cathedral’s Pilgrimage Officer and I will do the same for pilgrimage, and I also like historic maps! Karen and I have recruited several volunteers from Kent MEMS (more welcome) and we hope to have a meeting with them in January to get things started.

The start of May is the Canterbury Medieval Weekend, which this year will be taking place in the Templeman Library and Grimond Building, University of Kent, on Friday 1st and then Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd. I’m extremely excited about what I see as a fantastic programme of speakers, even if I say it myself! However, it is good to see ticket sales are reflecting this and I’m hoping it will pick-up momentum with the forthcoming BBC History Magazine advert and as we move further into 2026. This is the website with all the details and how to book: https://history-weekends.org but to whet your appetite under ‘Royalty and Nobility’ we will be welcoming Marc Morris, Helen Castor, David Carpenter and Joanna Laynesmith. Then for ‘Religion & the Arts’ we have Rachel Koopman, Ryan Perry, Diane Heath, Robert Gallagher and Angela Websdale, while ‘Social History’ features Christopher Dyer, Caroline Barron, Matthew Johnson, Catherine Delano-Smith and Eliot Benbow, and ‘War and Politics’ has talks by Richard Eales, Imogen Corrigan, David Grummitt, Katy Mortimer, Malcolm Mercer and Jack Newman.

For attendees we’ll have the exhibition in the Templeman Library, with, I hope, short talks over the lunch breaks by the MEMS postgraduate volunteers who helped craft it, as well as Craig Dadds’ Bookstall featuring books by the many speakers, which will be there all Weekend. Additionally, Torin Brown is looking into being able to offer one of his ‘Reflective Guided Pilgrimages’ around the outside of Canterbury Cathedral on the Friday afternoon (rather than the usual Thursday) if enough History Weekend attendees are interested – more on this shortly.

From my perspective, May also brings giving talks in Bridge and Sandwich, in July I’ll be in Canterbury, Faversham and Maidstone, and I know I’m not the only one doing such talks. However, the event that will involve Kent MEMS, especially members of the KHP group, is the Cinque Ports conference in Dover on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June. For this conference, we are working with Dover (Museum and Maison Dieu) and the Kent Archaeological Society (KAS) Maritime History group, led by Stuart Bligh. The conference will be held at the Maison Dieu, being part of the celebrations to mark the building’s ‘re-awakening’. The intention is for Friday to have sessions on ‘Administration’, the speakers being Justin Croft, Robert Blackmore, Craig Lambert and me, and on ‘Defence and the Royal Navy’, the speakers being Susan Rose, Chris Ware, Andrew Lambert and Andy Plumbly. Then on Saturday the theme will be ‘Maritime Communities’ and our speakers will be Gillian Draper, Claire Bartram, David Carpenter, James Lloyd, Jon Iveson and Daisy Turnbull. Additionally, there will be tours of the Maison Dieu, a fascinating building, so please do keep these dates and it will be possible to come for either day or both. The detailed programme will be available shortly.

Moving on to the autumn, the annual Fifteenth Century conference will be held at the University of Kent from Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th September. I am helping David Rundle with it and again we will be looking for volunteers from the Kent MEMS community to help. The call for papers has now gone out: 2026 Conference – Call for Papers – The Fifteenth Century Conference with the deadline being the end of this month and we have a few speakers in place already. Moreover, the intention is also to provide a chance for early – mid stage doctoral students to showcase their research through posters. On the Saturday there will be an optional, extra trip to Sandwich with a tour led by the CAMEMS chairman Robert Pay to explore what has been called ‘the completest medieval town’.

Finally, at least for the time being, the annual Nightingale Lecture will again be a joint venture involving CAMEMS and Brook Rural Museum. As before this will be an open lecture around the start of the new academic year. I’m still working on it but as soon as I have the necessary details, I’ll let you know. Thus, I hope you can see that we’ll be very busy again in 2026 and it will be brilliant to see old friends as well as newcomers at these many events as we showcase history and heritage in and of Kent.

Categories