 In the 1846 third Annual Congress of the British Archaeological Association, then held in Gloucestershire, Sandys presented a paper, entitled "On the Celtic of Ancient British Mound, called 'The Dane-John Hill', at Canterbury", on the particulars of the local mound.The same year, on 18 June, he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries In 1848, he edited and introduced "The Memorial and Case of the Clerici-Laici or Lay-Clerks of Canterbury Cathedral", a petition from the lay clerks of Canterbury Cathedral, to the Lord John Russell, asking for greater wages in comparison to the minor canons.Sandys composed a brief manuscript history of Reculver, Kent, from the Roman occupation to Henry VIII's reign.