Company History & Profile

These substantial medieval remains uncovered by PCA are part of the medieval Abbey at Bermondsey

The Past

PCA was founded in September 1993 as a contract archaeology unit working within the property development market provided by the advent of Planning Policy Guidance 16 (PPG16). Originally operating from both London and Lincolnshire, the company now has its headquarters in London with regional offices in Durham and Cambridgeshire.

The Present

PCA successfully manages heritage issues within development schemes, irrespective of their scale or nature. The company is able to provide a range of professional services in the urban and rural environment including project management, desktop reports, geophysical and total station surveys, GPS assessment, evaluation, excavation, watching briefs, building surveys, built heritage assessments and publications.
Commensurate with the undertaking of the fieldwork is the ability to assess, analyse and publish the results in the appropriate format. In-house skills include artefact analysis, CAD generated graphics, survey and photography. It has however always been a firm tenet of PCA's business strategy to sub-contract key areas of specialisms, such as conservation, environmental analysis, and other specialist artefact analysis. This enables PCA to combine a cost effective approach to the management and resourcing of projects, from a planning to post-excavation stages, with a choice of a greater range of external specialists, many of whom are internationally recognised.
Our clients range from small firms to large international companies, individuals to local and statutory bodies, and we particularly pride ourselves in our constructive working relationships with a wide variety of archaeological and multi-disciplinary consultants.

The Future

Having, in the past two decades, established a major position in the heritage contracts market, we are not content to sit on our laurels. We have noted areas of operational strengths, such as project management and resourcing, flexibility, and communications, and it is our intention to use these strengths to continue to develop our position within the UK market.