Dr John Williams, Head of Heritage Conservation, Kent County Council
On his own admission, John Williams is perhaps shy when the subject in question is himself. But passion for his role in the management and promotion of the archaeology of Kent sees no such reticence. He heads a team of 10 archaeologists and a conservation architect and takes obvious pride in their work, ‘one of the best teams in the country, and possibly the best’.
Born in North Wales, he was discouraged in the 60’s from following archaeology as a career due to the perceived lack of prospects (a consistent theme within these Back Page interviews). A letter to Mortimer Wheeler drew the response: ‘But the really important thing is to work hard ...’
A’ Levels in Latin, Greek and Greek and Roman History preceded reading Latin at Manchester University, where he took Roman Britain as a special subject. In his second year he was a supervisor after one week on a training excavation - ‘very unlike the long apprenticeships of today’ - and passed the summer as no 2 on the excavation of Chester’s Roman amphitheatre. The next year, either side of graduation, 15 weeks were spent directing major excavations at Warrington, a Roman industrial complex, for the Ministry of Public Building & Works. John’s sense of the absurd is apparent when recounting an observation from the audience at a lecture on the site - ‘what angle were the Romans had for a tactical defensive position, locating the settlement between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal’. Staging an MA at Manchester he did an MA with Barri Jones on Stone Building Materials in Roman Britain, and spent three years ‘away from the ivory tower of university archaeology’ in the text-tile industry provided a good business grounding - ‘some of my best archaeological training’.
He joined Northampton Development Corporation, a New Town authority, in 1971, at the beginning of the explosive growth of rescue archaeology, and headed its archaeology unit for 13 years. His most challenging and rewarding excavation was of a middle Saxon Weavering-style timber hall, subsequently replaced in stone. Publication of Middle Saxon “Palaces” at Northampton followed. He also got deeply involved in Medieval documentary sources for the town.
He then became Director of Lancaster University’s archaeology unit for 5 years, doing some undergraduate teaching along the way, and during this period obtained his Doctorate for a portfolio of published work on Medieval Northampton.
In 1989 he became Kent’s County Archaeologist, to face the very real challenge of curating wonderfully rich archaeology under quite considerable development pressure. Of some 22,000 planning applications annually around 1500 have to be looked at in some detail and, in addition to full publications, over 300 pieces of ‘grey literature’ (unpublished site reports) are generated each year. Ensuring an adequately funded archaeological response to appropriate standard and subsequent publication of the results is a key role of John’s team.
Two members of this team are responsible for the Sites & Monuments Records (there is also a Finds Liaison Officer see front page), and a Conservation Architect, dealing with issues of built heritage and KCC’s historic windmills.
Beyond the core work of development led archaeology, the emphasis is on ‘partnerships’. John embraces the wider picture, to emphasize that Kent’s archaeology must be seen within a European context. ‘Working with continental neighbours develops a better vision and takes forward best practice.’ PlanArch (planning and archaeology) led by Kent, is twinning Kent, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Flanders, Wallonia, the Netherlands and the Rhineland in a €2.5 million programme of work. The Historic Fortifications Network, embracing Kent, West Flanders and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, in its present phase is bringing €700,000 of European funding into Kent. John has to be something of an entrepreneur in terms of putting funding together; bidding for money is now standard practice, a completely different scenario from 20 years ago.
Does John ever miss trench and trowel? ‘The spirit is willing but the knees are weak’, a problem exacerbated by years of work... Does John have a personal view of the future? For Kent, one long held desire is the creation of an archaeological resource centre, to assemble the archives and finds from excavation and fieldwork and make them available for both academic study and general access to the public and schools. At a personal level, he hopes to pick up again research on Medieval Northampton.
John feels archaeology has ‘come of age’ during the last 30 years and that he is privileged to have been employed throughout that period in varying roles in three different parts of the country, each with exciting archaeology. For those starting out in the profession today there are perhaps more initial opportunities, but developing a longer-term career is not easy. Having had the chance to participate in shaping the management of archaeology at one of its most exciting periods and more recently be involved with major work in Kent, including that associated with Channel Tunnel Rail Link, he counts himself a lucky man.
(For an update on Roman Kent see John’s New Light on Roman Kent, just published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology)