Tom Armstrong Bowes, Herne Bay Museum and the Lower Palaeolithic of the Kentish Stour

The Palaeolith collection of the antiquarian Dr Tom Armstrong Bowes was the founding component of Herne Bay’s first museum and became one of the larger and more significant collections in the British Palaeolithic record. Its value to debates on the British Palaeolithic, however, has been limited by a stark lack of contextual data. Previously unstudied museum archives have now begun to unlock the lost provenance of this large collection so that it once again can contribute to long-standing regional questions on Acheulean typologies.