ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers. 1998.271.66

Pitt Rivers and Kent

Alison Petch,
Researcher 'The Other Within' project

Pitt Rivers donated a large number of archaeological objects from Kent, 668 in total. It is not known what links he had to the area (if any) but he worked in Kent in 1853-4 when he was appointed Commandant of the new School of Musketry at Hythe. He arrived in the summer of 1853 and his first child (who was still-born) was born there in November. His job was to test the Enfield and Lancaster rifles. Early in 1854 he left for Malta (arriving in March), and ultimately the Crimea. He spent a total of six months in the Kent area.

He seems to have done two periods of archaeological work in Kent, in September 1868 he spent time fieldwalking from Margate to Broadstairs on the Isle of Thanet. For further information, see here.

Then, almost exactly ten years later, he returned to Kent to investigate the so-called 'Caesar's Camp', at Folkestone in June-July 1878. For further information see here. This site was very close to the Hythe School of Musketry where he had worked some 24 years earlier.