Grave goods show that women were identified as weavers in the early Anglo-Saxon period, rather than specifically spinners, as occurs later. A key piece of weaving equipment found in migration era burials is the iron beater, shaped during this period like a sword. Spear shaped beaters appear later in the seventh century. This study is centred on a corpus of sword and spear shaped beaters not only from Anglo-Saxon England (centred on East Kent), but also from Norway, where the earliest examples are found and from Alamannia. Conclusions are drawn about the processes and social composition of textile production, including any separation of weaving and spinning, and discuss why tools associated with the women's task of weaving should be shaped as objects with masculine associations.

Prompted by two contradictory references to the nature and extent of woodlands in Cudham during the medieval period, Sue Harrington embarked upon a survey of the history of woodlands in this part of the North Downs. With the Domesday Book referring to extensive ploughlands and a slighty later reference to extensive woodlands, this study was designed to find out which was correct and what impact London had on Cudham in terms of offering a market for its surpluses. The methodology of Harrington's fieldwork and documentary research is outlined and background material on the environment, geology, patterns of settlement and land use, are presented. A core-periphery model is used to describe the relationship between Cudham and London.

The roots of England lie within the fertile soil of its earliest kingdom, that of the people of Kent. Here, for a brief moment under King Æthelbert of Kent (c.560-616) this corner of England was transformed into the first Anglo-Saxon and Christian kingdom. But who were the Anglo-Saxons and what happened in Kent during the Dark Ages after the departure of the Roman legions in AD 410? This book draws archaeological and historical evidence together for the first time in one volume to explain how Kent became the most important place in England, noted for its power, culture, wealth and international contacts and why, by the ninth century, it had become absorbed by its more powerful neighbours, the Anglo-Saxons.