We’re pleased to share that Tom Woolhouse and Tom Lucking will be speaking at the Wheeler Conference 2025, organised by the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, on Saturday 18 October. This year’s theme Re-envisaging Suffolk’s Past: New Discoveries from Development-led Archaeology brings together some of the most recent and significant fieldwork from across the county.
Their paper will draw together results from two recent projects in the Breckland: the A11 excavations and the work at Wangford Warren. Together, these investigations trace thousands of years of activity across what is often thought of as one of Suffolk’s quieter landscapes.
The A11 sites revealed everything from early flint scatters and Bronze Age cremations to Iron Age farmsteads and Roman occupation, showing that this stretch of ground was far more intensively used than previously thought.
At Wangford Warren, excavation of the rabbit warren earthworks and buried soils has brought to light traces of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, alongside evidence for a Roman farmstead, all preserved beneath the shifting sands of the Brecks.
Event details
Date: Saturday 18 October 2025, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Location: The Hold, 31 Fore Street, Ipswich, IP4 1LN
Pre-Construct Archaeology is one of UK’s largest archaeological companies, with seven regional offices across the country. We have been delivering professional heritage services for more than 30 years, working on some of the largest and most complex sites in Britain.
PCA is seeking to recruit a built heritage assistant to join our busy built heritage and landscapes team located in Winchester, as well as working alongside our PCA colleagues on a range of projects countrywide. PCA offers a competitive salary and a range of attractive benefits, including a pay banding structure that allows for career progression. The successful candidate will undergo a probationary 3-month period after which, given satisfactory performance, they will be offered a further contract, work permitting.
About the job:
Location: Winchester Working week: Monday to Friday 37.5 hours per week, usually 8:30am – 17:00 pm Salary range: £31,148.57 – £32,432.00 depending on experience, rising in line with PCA’s pay-banding progression structure.
(This is a full-time post, but part-time working may be considered)
This role is based in our Winchester office; however, we would consider working from one of our other offices.
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Job requirements:
This role would be to support PCA’s Built Heritage Project Manager with the delivery of projects and reports commissioned by clients in the planning, building and development sectors.
After a period of training and gaining experience in the role, the successful applicant will be expected to:
Write Heritage Statements (HS), Desk-Based Assessments (DBA’s) & Historic Building Recording (HBR) reports, occasionally to tight deadlines
Support the project manager with researching, specifying, and costing projects for clients
Assist with client queries when required
Essential:
Proven report writing ability
Degree level education (History/ Archaeology/ Historic Buildings or related)
Experience working in a business/commercial/client handling environment
Microsoft 365 competency
Proven ability to work to deadlines or under time pressure
Good communication skills
Ability to follow instructions and multi-task
Ability to take clear and accurate site & building photographs, and willingness to travel to sites when required
Eligibility to work and live in the UK
Full clean UK driving licence
Desirable:
Confident in building relationships with colleagues and clients; confident in asking for advice and help from colleagues in all PCA offices
Previous experience of writing HS, DBA and possibly HBR reports
Willingness & enthusiasm to learn
Some knowledge of / interest in learning about UK Planning regulations
A pragmatic commercial (rather than academic) approach to project work
Demonstrable interest in historic buildings & landscapes
Resourceful & self-motivated; able to use own initiative to plan projects and undertake research
Our employee benefits:
Friendly and supportive work environment
28 days of annual leave (including bank holidays and an extra 3 days for Christmas, if employed over the Christmas period), rising on service length
£22.50 per night subsistence when working away from home and high-quality accommodation provided
High quality PPE provision– the safety of our staff always comes first
Mental Health First Aiders
Cycle to work scheme
Flexible working
Christmas vouchers
H&S training relevant for your role will be provided and paid in full (SSSTS, Asbestos Awareness etc.)
Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIFA) subscriptions paid in full
Paid mileage if using own vehicle (subject to eligibility)
Annual appraisal and pay progression opportunities
Company pension scheme
How to apply: Please email your CV and covering letter to Ruta Jatkonyte, HR Assistant: RJatkonyte@pre-construct.com
Please state on your application which role you are applying for and describe your suitability by referring to the requirements listed above. If successful you will be asked to attend an interview at our Winchester office.
PCA is committed to a comprehensive equal opportunities policy in which individuals are selected and treated on the basis of their relevant merits and abilities without regard to race, religion or belief, colour, sex, age, national origin, disability or sexual orientation. All applicants with the relevant qualifications and experience are welcome to apply for this opportunity. Please be advised that you must hold the right to work and live in the UK in order to apply for this job.
PCA follow all current guidelines regarding SOP and take the safety of our staff as paramount – advice is up to date with government guidance and site-specific RAMS are available.
Please be advised we are expecting a high volume of applications, and therefore cannot commit to responding to all emails. In accordance with our GDPR policy, we will not keep unsuccessful applicants’ details or CVs on our system, unless you expressly request that we do.
PCA has worked on burial sites for more than thirty years, uncovering thousands of skeletons across Britain. Most reflect expected health patterns, but every so often individuals with striking and uncommon pathologies emerge.
One individual, from St Mary Newington in Southwark (pictured here), was a young adult with bowed, shortened limbs and pronounced changes to the spine. Although the missing skull prevented a firm diagnosis, the skeleton suggests a serious congenital or metabolic disorder that would have caused pain and mobility issues.
The second case, from the Saxon cemetery at Sun Lane, New Arlesford, shows features consistent with Klippel-Feil Syndrome: fused vertebrae, spinal abnormalities and restricted movement.
Despite their visible differences, both individuals were buried in the main areas of their cemeteries, suggesting social acceptance within their communities.
📅 26th Annual BABAO Conference, 18–20 September 📍University of Leicester 🎙 James Young Langthorne & Dr Ariadne Lucia Schulz
We’re delighted to see PCA’s work at the Tower of London featured in National Geographic! It’s always exciting when the stories we help uncover reach such a wide audience.
This #FindsFriday, we’re sharing one of the most tantalising discoveries from the site, a pair of medieval funerary incense pots (c.1150–1250). As Alfred Hawkins, Curator, says in the article, “Grave goods in Medieval England aren’t really a thing,”
Only two such “gravpottes” have been found in the UK, suggesting the individual may have come from Northern France or Denmark, where they were more common. If the charcoal fragments are large enough, it might even be possible to reconstruct the incense.
For #FindsFriday, a decorated comb from an Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement in Worcestershire, though it may not be local.
The comb’s trapezoidal connecting plates, along with its elaborate decoration (sawn-out openwork X designs and undulating chains of overlapping ring-and-dot) match Mairéad Dunlevy’s class C2 Irish combs, dated to the 7th–early 8th centuries.
Irish combs do turn up on Anglo-Saxon sites, but until now only class D combs, dating from the later 7th–early 9th centuries, have been found. Excitingly, this would be the first class C comb recorded in England.
Photography has been central to the archaeological record since the earliest excavations, from fragile glass plate negatives to today’s vast digital archives. Each image helps preserve context, capture discoveries, and record the evolution of sites over time.
Drones have taken this further, revealing entire landscapes, showing scale at a glance, and offering perspectives once impossible.
This footage comes from a recent excavation in the Cotswolds (Bronze-Age to Anglo-Saxon activity). The client is Centaur Land, and thanks to SUMO GeoSurveys for the film.
And stay tuned, two red kites make a spectacular appearance at the end!
PCA archaeologists from the Newark office have been busy over the last few weeks at Newark Castle in Nottinghamshire, and the work has been turning up some unexpected finds.
Adjacent to the Gatehouse, a substantial section of walling was revealed during monitoring. Early thoughts were that this was a possible outer gatehouse; however, after visits from a Castle expert and consulting various mapping, it is now thought this wall may be part of the fortifications by the bridge that crossed the River Trent during the Civil War.
Elsewhere, during excavations for an attenuation tank, an unexpected retaining wall was exposed. After assessing the stone thickness and style, it is thought that this wall is part of the earliest phase of the stone Castle (the magnificent stone structure that currently stands was probably preceded by an earth and timber castle). This discovery has reshaped our understanding of how the Castle may have looked; the ditch seems to have only partially encircled the Castle.
During investigations to ascertain the route of the wall, the team made a rather exciting discovery. At the bottom of the outflow of the garderobes, a large capped cesspit was revealed. A large, worn millstone was used to cap the cesspit at some point during the medieval period, to make way for a garden.
From Civil War bridges to medieval garderobes, Newark Castle still has stories to tell.
In archaeology, individual finds are valuable, but it’s often the bigger picture that tells the real story. Assemblages, or groups of objects found together, can reveal patterns of behaviour, trade, and chronology in ways that isolated finds simply can’t. Too often, limited sampling or tight excavation windows mean specialists don’t get the volume of material needed for meaningful analysis. But when we do have the chance to excavate large assemblages, especially of pottery, the payoff can be huge.
Large ceramic assemblages are crucial for refining chronological frameworks in British archaeology. Pottery styles evolve rapidly and vary regionally, making them sensitive indicators of time and cultural change. Analysing form, fabric, and decoration across stratified contexts allows us to build precise dating sequences and trace shifts in occupation, identity, and social practice.
This approach is central to regional research agendas, like those set out in the East of England and South West Archaeological Research Frameworks, which emphasise the importance of ceramic studies in understanding settlement patterns, trade networks, and social transformations. Large assemblages also allow for statistical analysis and comparison across sites, strengthening regional chronologies and contributing to broader narratives of historical development.
Our long-running excavations in Milton Keynes offer compelling evidence for the value of an assemblage-based approach. Prehistoric pottery specialist Lawrence (pictured here with finds supervisor Emily and project officer Jenn) is now nearing the end of an epic cataloguing effort from an unusual site spanning 12 hectares. This site was established in the mid-1st century BC and spans the late Iron Age with all activity ceasing by around AD70. With over 72,000 pottery sherds, weighing approximately 1.1 metric tonnes, this is starting to look like a very significant assemblage with a fascinating story to tell – watch this space!
Today, August 1st, is the Feast of Saint Peter ad Vincula, the saint to whom the Tower of London’s chapel is dedicated, and the timing couldn’t be more fitting.
During our recent excavation, in collaboration with the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, PCA uncovered the footings of Henry I’s 12th-century chapel, along with a contemporary stone drain. These remains haven’t been seen since the building was demolished under Henry III, more than 750 years ago.
There’s a strong possibility that this early chapel was inaugurated on the feast day itself, establishing its place in the Tower’s early sacred history.
We had a great time at the Essex Festival of Archaeology last week! Thanks to Place Services for putting together such a well-organised and welcoming event.
It was great to be part of something that clearly struck a chord with so many people. Over 1,100 visitors came through the doors, the talks were fully booked (with waiting lists!), and there was a real buzz around the stands all day.
The feedback was lovely, people appreciated the range of exhibitors, the quality of the displays, and the enthusiasm from everyone involved. We’re proud to have been part of it, and we’re already looking forward to the next one.
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