A.J.B. Wace sought professional draughtsmen and architects to produce measured plans and section drawings on site to support publication of the archaeological evidence. As with his dig team, Wace employed the services of people appropriately skilled and available at the time, hence a variety of individuals contributed plans over the decades. Piet de Jong and Leicester Holland drew up the plans during 1920-1923. In 1952-1953, Leicester’s daughter Marian was site architect.

The archive holds mostly the final, print-ready plans, all drawn by hand in pencil then inked-up with a technical pen. They are equally both works of measured, scientific record and human artistry. Post publication, they continued to be working documents, splashed with tea, rolled and unrolled, pinned up, scribbled on with notes by Wace. Also preserved, are Wace’s own first drafts of chamber tomb plans, dashed-off drafts, intended primarily as an aide-memoire to himself. All the above manage to record every key feature of a burial chamber, revealing a tremendous eye for close observation and detail in the midst of a necessarily brisk excavation pace in cramped conditions.

The plans are grouped as they were arranged and stored originally, according to the site area they cover. Within each area, plans are in chronological order, proceeding from the earliest relevant excavation season.

Bibliographic references are supplied for the initial publication of a plan.  Subsequent publications of a plan are normally not given, unless it was a publication written or edited by A.J.B. Wace himself.