John Williams retires as County Archaeologist

At the end of April John Williams, Head of Heritage Conservation and County Archaeologist at Kent County Council, will be retiring. He came to Kent in September 1989 as KCC’s first County Archaeologist and since then, with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and all the other major development, it has certainly been a high-pressure 19 years for the Heritage team – many of the results of development-led archaeology during this period can be noted in the recently published ‘The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800’. I know that John is hoping now to devote rather more time to research. His position as head of the Heritage Conservation team at KCC will be taken, from 1st May, by Lis Dyson. Lis has been with KCC now for some fifteen years, is a member of KAS’ Fieldwork Committee and will be well known to many KAS members. John will be briefly reflecting on his time in Kent at the KAS AGM (see Programme) and we will have a fuller article in the next issue of the Newsletter.