The Gordon Ward Catalogue
IN THE STEPS OF DOCTOR WARD – CATALOGUING AN UNUSUAL ARCHIVE.
Dr. Reginald Gordon Ward, M.D., F.S.A., died in 1962, at the age of 77. A GP, practising at Sevenoaks, he was also a member of the KAS from 1927 until his death. He was a member of the KAS Council and was made an Honorary member in 1954 in recognition of his services to the Society. His range of interests was very wide, covering Saxon charters, manorial records, Wealden dens, the Yokes, Hengist and Horsa, topography and place names. He was always in demand as a lecturer at venues throughout Kent and was also revered as a well-known philatelist. He accumulated a vast collection of papers, a large proportion of which is lodged at the Centre for Kentish Studies, however a smaller, but none the less intriguing one, was deposited in the Society’s Library. To describe it as eclectic would be an understatement, since the collection comprises a vast variety of notes, printed ephemera, post cards, prints, handbills, letters, maps, tickets, advertisements, cuttings, essays, opinions, speculations, sale catalogues and much more. Gordon Ward did not confine his interests to his own locality, and virtually the whole of the County is represented in the files, although naturally, the areas nearest to Sevenoaks received his greatest attention.
Since the Society first acquired the archive, it has been housed in the Library Room at Maidstone Museum where it has been available for use by members. At an early stage, it was roughly sorted into fools-cap folders, following Gordon Ward’s own method, which was to file his items by place. This enabled members to make a rough search of the archive in order to back up information that they had obtained from other sources, but this was obviously an unsatisfactory and haphazard way of doing research. The task of cataloguing, sorting, indexing and conservation always seemed to be daunting, and the need to physically sort through the vast collection when a particular item was needed, meant that damage to fragile items was unavoidable. However, the encouraging results of the information technology that has now been brought into the Library have meant that, at last, the development of this overdue project can begin. It was agreed that the contents of the Gordon Ward Archive should be catalogued directly onto the Society’s web site, so that members, or any interested person, could know exactly what was present and available, thus making actual visits to the Library itself more constructive and profitable in terms of time and expertise. A second benefit would be to minimise physical handling of the items. Lastly, it was considered important for the Society to know exactly what it owned in this unique collection.
Initially, it was necessary to make a survey of the collection and to sort each place file into a useable sequence. A band of hardy volunteers was recruited for this purpose, and over many months, they carefully collated each file, and made a manual list of every item that was present. This was detailed, painstaking work. After this, the task of entering the whole collection onto the database could begin. In order that members could have immediate benefit, it was decided that the web site would show the catalogue as it progressed, and now after some months of careful work, we are currently entering places with names beginning in the latter part of the alphabetical sequence. A special attempt has been made to create a standard style throughout, although owing to the widely differing format of virtually every item contained in the archive, one could not for instance, easily provide a standard library entry as is the case for books. However, the guiding principle has been to enter any item in such a way that its content and significance are clear, and in such a way that the system will produce the information if a reasonably phrased enquiry is made. It is possible to enquire under PLACE NAME, and under a SUBJECT or a KEY WORD e.g. BROADSTAIRS, CASTLE, ROMAN, MOTOR CAR etc. etc. Names of individuals, or their occupations, are also keyworded if they seem to be significant e.g. BLACKSMITH, HARDIMAN. The system is very easy to use, and an enquiry under a place name will instantly produce the whole contents of the archive as relevant to that place.
It is expected that the complete Gordon Ward archive will have been entered onto the database by the end of 2004. However, the next task will be to ensure that the complete collection is removed from the temporary, and totally unsuitable fools-cap folders, and into proper archival storage. There will be more work for keen volunteers to assist with this process during this year.
What does the collection tell us about Kent? The answer is a great amount. Gordon Ward was obviously an avid collector/ cutter up of journals, newspapers and other matter. He appears never to have knowingly thrown away any items which had a Kentish connection and came into his possession. Because he was so well known, he was invited to many local occasions and events, and he had connections over the whole of the County. He was never unwilling to help any person who had a genuine historical or archaeological question to ask, and he was totally generous with his knowledge and information, the results of which are amply illustrated in the files. The collection also contains letters and notes from many other famous Kent antiquarians, and the subjects that they avidly debated cover a bewildering variety of ground. Gordon Ward’s enthusiasm was ignited by virtually any Kent topic – ancient horseshoes, nails, tokens, lost roads, tracks, ancient customs, buildings ancient and modern. He clipped information from numerous sources, and however trivial in their origins, many of the cuttings, leaflets, handbills and letters give an insight into village life during his lifetime. There is a sense of poignancy in observing how, by the end of WWII, the arcadia that had been an antiquarian’s lot in Britain, was totally swept away by the urge to modernise. Maps, especially the maps and parish boundaries, were an abiding source of interest to him, and he collected and annotated 19th-century sale maps from all over the County. Some of his own maps, delicately traced and colour coded, are works of art in their own [pg5]right. He had some bad habits, often neglecting to date cuttings and notes, and rarely noting sources, although property advertisements, obviously from The Field, and Country Life, illustrate many houses and estates that are likely to have vanished from the Kentish scene during later development.
Given the evidence of Gordon Ward’s consuming enthusiasm, some of the volunteers who made the initial sorting of the collection began to wonder how he ever found time to be a GP. However, he had a somewhat disconcerting habit of storing his ephemeral items in envelopes that had previously contained his cuttings from The Lancet, and other medical journals, as well as headings for case studies and similar. He obviously shared his talents and energies equally amongst his professional and personal lives. The archives contain one or two letters from grateful patients as further evidence of this trait.
What use is the collection to serious researchers or indeed, to anyone making an historical study of Kent? Again, the answer is a great deal. The Gordon Ward Archive may consist of ephemeral material, but much of it, particularly the illustrative matter, is invaluable as evidence to back up serious academic points. The historical and archaeological opinions of Gordon Ward and his contemporaries may perhaps not always stand up well in the light of present knowledge, but they had prime access to important sites and sources that could well have been forgotten over the years. There is also of course, the question of posterity, and the chance for future members to dip into the lost world of an early 20th-century antiquarian, and one whose life spanned a period of enormous change.
The Gordon Ward catalogue can be accessed at www.kentarchaeology.ac.