Honours for Retiring County Archaeologist
Honours for Retiring
John Williams has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and the University of Kent is conferring on him an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law.
Some years ago John Williams featured in our ‘Back Page People’ series. Readers may recall the story of the lad from North Wales who read Latin at Manchester University, did an MA in Stone Building Materials in Roman Britain, met his future wife Frances while excavating a medieval cess pit in Colchester and ‘cooked a mean curry’! After heading up the archaeological unit at Northampton Development Corporation for 13 years he moved to Lancaster University in 1984 as Director of their archaeological unit. His PhD was awarded in 1986 for published work on the archaeology and history of medieval Northampton. John arrived in Kent three years later, as its first County Archaeologist.
John retired recently. For 19 years he has been the lead figure for KCC’s Heritage Conservation team, nowadays numbering around a dozen. It wasn’t always so; when John was appointed he had only one assistant. This was just before the inception of PPG16, legislation which brought big changes to the amount of archaeological investigation; Kent in particular was facing major development. Within a few months of John’s arrival he was involved in preliminary studies for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link; almost twenty years later the final reports are nearly ready.
John’s belief in the large-area ‘landscape’ approach has led to ‘strip, map and sample’ investigations on many of the massive schemes which Kent has seen during the last decade – for example, the current Thanet Earth glasshouse site, covering 90 hectares. Information from this approach has provided major new insights into Kent’s rich heritage – going beyond the single site mentality into how Kent’s archaeological past articulated spatially and chronologically. The results of much of this work appear in ‘The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800’, edited by John. The book’s designers created the image below for his retirement!
Building up a team to deal with development-led archaeology has been a key task for John; another has been to develop and ensure access to the Sites & Monuments Record, now known as the Historic Environment Record (HER). Access for all to archaeology has been an increasing concern, and the role of volunteers is crucial, even with archaeology being so ‘professionalized’ today. It’s not a case of professionals vs. ‘amateurs’ - there is only good and bad archaeology, and unnecessary destructive work (eg excavation) should not be done by amateurs or professionals unless the resources are available to see a project through to proper publication”. John would like to see
BELOW: John's farewell card based on his book cover.
More volunteers working in an integrated way alongside local and other archaeological units on development-led work, where resources ought to be available. He would also like to see more parish-survey work undertaken. Community projects have been instigated, at Shorne Wood Country Park, and by the HER team, who regularly involve volunteers and it is intended to have active volunteer participation in the archaeological work programmed for the major East Kent Access road scheme. Another means of public access to archaeology came through the very early appointment of a Finds Liaison Officer for Kent.
It is perhaps John’s pro-active approach to Europe which singles him out from others in similar positions. He led on Planarch, a project with partners in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and England, which aimed to integrate archaeology better into the planning process. He played a major role in the Historic Fortifications Network between Kent, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and West Flanders, conserving, promoting and making accessible the rich defence heritage of these regions. Nearer to home, John is proud of his part in securing the future of Oare Gunpowder Works, of incorporating Thurnham Castle within White Horse Wood Country Park and in the restoration of KCC’s eight windmills through a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid.
On John’s wish list for Kent’s future is an Archaeological Resource Centre – a central facility for the innumerable finds (and their associated documentary archives) that have been made in the county over the years (often now in storerooms around Britain). It would not be just a store but also an active hub, to make the material available across the county for display and education and for research by everyone. “We desperately need this ... we’re travelling more hopefully than before, but still not quite there”. He also emphasises the need to continue providing a high quality response to development pressures. The Heritage Team will now be led by Lis Dyson, who has worked with John at KCC for the last 15 years and is a member of the Society’s Fieldwork Committee.
And what of John’s future? “I’m looking forward to abandoning the (ever-increasing) mountains of emails and paperwork and seeking to find anew that other half of my split personality – the academic”. He plans to research and write on Northampton and Kent and would relish some work abroad if the opportunity arose. He will also be involved with the Dover Bronze Age Boat Trust.
In July the University of Kent is conferring an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law on John, in recognition of the way he has raised the profile of archaeology in local government and developed the European dimension.
Kent’s heritage has faced massive pressures over the last two decades. The county was fortunate to have someone who rose to the challenge of protecting and enhancing that heritage. The citation accompanying John’s MBE, ‘for services to local government’ very much recognises John’s contribution to archaeology and heritage within local government. We wish John well in his (probably very active!) retirement.