Archangels and Archaeology: J.S.M. Ward's Kingdom of the Wise

A spiritualist, mystic, historian and lifelong collector of antiquities, J.S.M. Ward (1885-1949) embodied the cultural turmoil of an age of collapsing empires, religious fragmentation and world war. The Abbey Folk Park he started in 1934 at New Barnet, north of London, was an innovative history museum where Ward's interest in esoteric heritage, world cultures and the occult attracted much attention. Unfairly disgraced in a sensational court case in May 1945, he and his followers departed England for Cyprus in self-imposed exile, along with the stunning collection of artefacts.

After Ward's death, both the community and his collection moved to Queensland, Australia, where a new Abbey Museum now thrives just north of Brisbane.

Archangels & Archaeology traces John Ward's extraordinary life career for the first time, from Edwardian Freemasonry and wartime spiritualism to his apocalyptic visions as a second world war threatened to engulf Europe. His lively museum fused a passion for Britain's disappearing heritage conviction that western civilization would shortly collapse. These vivid concerns - so often treated in isolation - come together in J.S.M. Ward's curious and eccentric life story.