Catch up with all the latest news across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hooke. Here are your
00:25top stories on Wednesday the 13th of November. Wasps alert. Rugby giant one step closer to
00:32controversial move to Kent. It should have happened 15, 20 years ago. London Wasps as
00:38they were known back then are one of the biggest clubs in professional rugby. A dark time for
00:45the Church of England. Kent reader in religious studies reacts to Archbishop's resignation.
00:51This is a real crisis moment for the church. I think the church will obviously rebuild,
00:56it will have to rebuild, but it will have to do so by putting the victims first. Digging
01:01deep we uncover thousands of years of history found below Sean Woods Country Park. We started
01:08the project here because we knew there was a medieval manor here. It had been dug very
01:12briefly in the 1960s. Good evening, former premiership rugby club Wasps has announced
01:27it's a step closer to its return to the game by securing land to build a new 28,000 seat
01:32stadium here in Kent. Whilst experts say a first professional side in Kent is long overdue,
01:38those against the proposal say the nearby villages simply can't cope with the demand
01:42it would bring on local traffic. Bartholomew Hall has more. When Wasps rugby club went
01:48into administration in 2022 and were relegated from rugby union's top flight, the thought
01:53of the Midlands team relocating to a new stadium here in Kent was nothing short of a pipe dream.
01:59But fast forward two years and now looking for a complete resurgence, the club has announced
02:03today it's bought land and is one step closer to building a 28,000 seater stadium, becoming
02:09the county's first professional rugby side. The club's disappeared, it's trying to come
02:15back, trying to come back in the championship. Sevenoaks have been very welcome to us and
02:20Kent, so we just felt this was the best place. It's got a great rugby heritage down there,
02:26there's a lot of clubs. Whilst Wasps haven't announced where they've acquired land in Kent,
02:30the club had previously asked Sevenoaks council to include an allocation for a stadium at
02:34one of two locations near Swanley. But some residents, particularly those against the
02:39proposed 2,500 home garden village on Pedham Place, have been protesting since the plans
02:44were first put forward, saying there simply isn't enough space in the nearby villages
02:48to take so much demand. I think it would be fantastic to have Wasps as a prestigious club
02:53in Kent, without a doubt it would be fantastic to have them, just very concerned about the
02:57location and it's simply because of traffic flow, managing that on a sports weekend.
03:05Their average gates are about 8,500, so they're going to have to drive revenue some other
03:09way and we suspect that might be through using the stadium for other purposes, in which case
03:15we're going to end up with traffic much more than just every other weekend. Joe Robinson
03:20is editor at Rugby World magazine and also plays for Swanley RFC as a fly half. He says
03:26a stadium will have the power to transform Kent's sporting landscape. It should have
03:30happened 15, 20 years ago. London Wasps, as they were known back then, are one of the
03:36biggest clubs in professional rugby. It's akin to Arsenal or Chelsea going bust. I think
03:42what I would say from a sporting perspective is that I've seen new stadiums be developed
03:47in areas, so naturally the net positive that that can have on an area and a town, specifically
03:53a town like Swanley, it can really help a society and really help younger people specifically
03:59get into sport which we know can improve mental health, improve fitness, improve a lot of
04:04things around someone's life. Wasps rugby has applied to enter the second tier of rugby
04:09union for the 25 to 26 season, but as well as viability on the pitch, the question now
04:14is if local resistance will prove an immovable opponent off it. Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.
04:21Drones are being used to catch people damaging cars after multiple reports of smashed windows
04:26on two major roads in Kent. Kent Police have thermal imaging cameras to monitor footpaths
04:31and wooded areas. Unmarked police vehicles are also in use after the suspected catapult
04:37attacks with drivers saying they were shot at on the A2 near Darenth and on the M20 near
04:42Snodland. Objects were fired from near the carriageway on the A2, damaging windows and
04:46bodywork on several vehicles. But it's not being linked to other reports on the same
04:51day but over on the M20. There, items were believed to have been thrown from a nearby
04:55bridge. Questions over who knew about the crimes of John Smyth still linger for religious
05:03leaders after the former Archbishop of Canterbury's resignation. A damning report showed years
05:08of abuse within the Church of England. Justin Welby apologised for his failure to act when
05:13he found out back in 2013 that more than 100 children had been abused by John Smyth.
05:18Kent reader and religious studies Chris Deasey joined me earlier to discuss the impact on
05:22the church and what's next.
05:23I think it's a very dark time for the Church of England and quite shocking to think that
05:29it may have been even in the 1970s that the, well the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury
05:35as he now is, might have had some contact with the individual at the heart of these
05:39abuse allegations. So I do think that this is a real crisis moment for the church. I
05:45think the church will obviously rebuild, it will have to rebuild, but it will have to
05:50do so by putting the victims first. And I think that there is a long process ahead and
05:55as you rightly say there may be other bishops involved here who will come forward or will
06:00be outed.
06:01Chris, something like this has never happened before, it's unprecedented. Will there be
06:05that wider look into the Church of England, its conduct and looking at what needs to change
06:10and quite crucially how will something like that happen and how much pressure will be
06:14put on the Church of England to make sure it never happens again?
06:19I think you're absolutely right, I mean there's no doubt that that will happen. I mean when
06:23you consider that on Monday the top story in the news was a bishop calling for the Archbishop's
06:29resignation so there's no way that this can be dusted under the carpet shall we say. And
06:35I think that when you consider this is, we're talking about the established church, there
06:39will be politicians involved, Justin Welby sits in the House of Lords, there will be
06:43inquiries, there is no way that this is going to be a closed matter. It doesn't end with
06:49the resignation of the Archbishop.
06:51How will the new Archbishop of Canterbury be chosen and in fact who could it be?
06:57Well, to answer the second part of your question first, I'm sure people will be thinking of
07:00the Bishop of Dover, Bishop Rose. But I do think that the official mechanism is that
07:07the Prime Minister has a say in the decision once there has been a whittling down. I mean
07:14it's a formal process, the Prime Minister won't be choosing the next Archbishop but
07:18has a say and will no doubt be steered in this direction. But the official process is
07:23that it goes to a committee, it will be whittled down to two names and then there will be an
07:27appointment. I'm guessing it will be in two or three months' time at the absolute earliest.
07:32Well, in his resignation letter he said it's very clear I must take personal and institutional
07:38responsibility for the long and re-traumatising period between 2013 and 2024. Adding, Justin
07:44Welby said he hopes this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands
07:48the need for change and their profound commitment to creating a safer church too.
07:53Now this evening we'll be airing the Kentonite special Beneath Shaun Woods here on KMTV.
07:58Our reporter Finn McDermott takes us through the country park, walking in the footsteps
08:02of those 8,000 years ago. The space measures less than half a square mile but archaeologists
08:07have found evidence of people being there since 6,000 BC. From a World War II RAF base
08:13camp to Stone Age Flint and a medieval manor, the North Kent ground boasts a huge range
08:18of historical artefacts. Here's a snippet of the secret Shaun Woods has to offer.
08:24Walking around this country park you might not see anything out of the ordinary but beneath
08:27your feet or behind a tree there's thousands of years worth of history. Back in 2006 a
08:33team of archaeologists used a light detection device to get a reading of Shaun Woods' country
08:38park from the air. Once they did they noticed almost man-made shapes in the earth that were
08:42covered by the trees. For nearly a decade the team dug out an entire medieval manor
08:47called Randall Manor that dates back to around the 1200s belonging to the de Cobham family.
08:52But it wasn't their only find. They set up shop and used their map to locate more
08:56sites of interest like a massive quarry from the 1960s that was used to mine clay for the
09:01cement industry. They also knew of an RAF base camp in the south of the park but had
09:06to do some more digging when they uncovered children's toys. They discovered the camp's
09:10shelters had actually housed displaced families after the war and the council even supported
09:15them despite them technically being squatters. After the war when the RAF exited the camp
09:22people were coming back from the war and people that had been bombed out were looking for
09:28somewhere to live. Currently the team are working on digging out new sections of walls
09:32near Randall Manor which they think could be part of the de Cobham's agricultural
09:35land as they haven't managed to find any evidence of human habitation. It may be that
09:41this building was built at the remnants of the other building, Randall Manor, which was
09:46built in about 1250. So it may have only been there for about 100 years and then it went
09:54and then it just became a farmstead. Have you ever been round someone's house and they
09:59like to show off all the awards their little kid has won? This is sort of like that. When
10:03you were a medieval lord or lady and you wanted to show someone around your land you might
10:07just so happen to pass your massive agricultural fields where you keep all your animals, a
10:11symbol of your wealth, sort of like a Rolex or a Ferrari in the modern day. While some
10:15might question the need for archaeology, families have become reunited with lost memories thanks
10:20to things found beneath the earth and it's a way for people to know more about what once
10:24happened in their local area. And as far as Kent goes it has a lot of history to offer
10:29so you never know what you might find in your attic or below your feet.
10:38Quick look at the weather before I go this evening. Temperatures between 6 and 8 and
10:429 degrees over in Margate this evening. Pretty misty across the county as well. I think we've
10:49lost a bit of the weather there. I'll keep telling you what it's going to look like.
10:52Tomorrow morning some cloudy skies. There we go, we're looking at it again. We've got
10:57it back, there we go, on your screen. So that's this evening's weather. This is from 6 degrees
11:01to 9 degrees over in Margate. As I say, some mist forming. And here tomorrow morning, highs
11:07of 10 over in Margate but 9 degrees right across the county. And tomorrow afternoon
11:12much of the same, highs of 11.
11:17That's all from me for now but straight after the break we have a brand new documentary.
11:22Finn McDermott takes us through the years at Sean Woods Country Park. From a World War
11:27II RAF base camp to Stone Age Flint and a medieval manor, the North Kent grounds boast
11:32a huge range of historical artefacts. We follow the archaeological team across the park to
11:37investigate the kinds of people who lived there, the things built there and the history
11:41embedded in the county right under our feet. Stick with us.
11:57Thanks for watching.