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Cate Davies

Dec 01

Little End nominated for Rescue Project of the Year, voting opens 1 December

By News No Comments

Following the recent Current Archaeology feature on Little End, written by Isobel Woolhouse, we’re delighted to share that the project has been shortlisted for Rescue Project of the Year in the 2026 Current Archaeology Awards.

This nomination recognises the significance of PCA’s work in recovering the story of a small community that had slipped almost entirely from view. Little End might once have been a modest corner of Eaton Socon, but its archaeology has proved remarkably rich, a reminder that the everyday lives of rural workers are every bit as vital to our history as the better-known narratives.

We’d like to thank Sue Jarrett, whose extensive local research helped restore the identities of Little End’s former residents, as well as Jonathan House, the site team, and everyone involved in analysis and interpretation.

If you found the article compelling, or if you value the rescue of sites that would otherwise be lost forever, we’d be hugely grateful for your support!

Voting is now open: www.archaeology.co.uk/vote

Click here to read Little End: Tracing the archaeology and social history of a long-vanished community

Nov 25

Finds Assistant Newark

By Jobs No Comments

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. As 2025 draws to a close, we are undertaking some very exciting projects in the Newark region. 

We are looking to recruit staff immediately for a Finds Assistant. Please note, this role will also require the suitable candidate to regularly undertake archaeological fieldwork as part of their role. 

 PCA offers a competitive salary and a range of attractive benefits, including a pay banding structure that allows for career progression. All successful candidates 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: Newark 

Working week: Monday to Friday 37.5 hours per week, usually 8am – 4 pm 

Start Date: ASAP 

Salary range: starting from £26,899.35 pa 

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General requirements for the role:

  • Degree in Archaeology or related subject (e.g. History, Classics, Geology etc.)
  • Ability and willingness to work on site in all kinds of weather
  • Excellent oral and written English, basic maths skills are essential
  • Willingness to learn new skills
  • Good teamwork
  • Excellent punctuality and timekeeping
  • Attention to detail
  • Commitment to PCA’s health and safety policies at all times
  • Eligible to live and work in the UK

The Finds role will include:

  • Oversee, processing, and preparation of Finds and Environmental material.
  • Oversee the Archives of the Newark office
  • Log finds, environmental and paper archives as they arrive, keeping track of the status and location as they are processed and ready to be deposited.
  • Liaise with internal and external specialists as required.
  • Liaise with other finds stores, archive repositories and museums to make sure the archives (both physical and digital) are deposited in the appropriate manner.
  • Supervise staff both individually and as teams who undertake finds and environmental processing and archive preparation.
  • Ensure there are adequate facilities and equipment available to undertake the processing and storage of finds.
  • Ensure the protection of artefacts and store all artefacts, ecofacts and archives appropriately and securely.
  • Follow all rules required for appropriate method and analysis.
  • Undertake the role in accordance with CIfA standards and guidance.

Essential requirements:

  • Experience working in a finds processing environment
  • Understanding the basic requirements of finds storage and tracking
  • Ability to identify and sort finds of all types/dates
  • Good organisational skills
  • Database skills (Access/Excel)
  • Willingness and ability to supervise others
  • Flexible approach to meeting competing deadlines
  • Excellent organisational skills

Desirable:

  • Full clean driving licence
  • Experience working with volunteers
  • Knowledge of archiving processes (training will also be provided)

The Archaeologist (fieldwork) role will include:

  • Excavation of archaeological features and deposits
  • Collection and labelling of artefacts
  • Writing context sheets for archaeological features and deposits, drawing plans and sections to scale, on site photography and basic survey using a GPS unit
  • Collection and processing of environmental samples
  • Post-excavation office work (occasionally required) including washing, marking and labelling finds, archiving site records

Minimum requirements:

  • 3 months of commercial fieldwork experience from the UK

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 and site welfare 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, First Aid, Asbestos Awareness, CAT and Genny 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 Newark offices.
 
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.

Closing date: 10/12/2025

Nov 25

Prehistoric Archaeology Helps in the Fight Against Climate Change

By News No Comments

PCA has been carrying out ongoing investigations of a multi-period landscape in west Suffolk, discovering important evidence of Neolithic activity on the fringes of the mid-Suffolk clay-land, as well as traces of Bronze Age field systems, Iron Age settlement, and a medieval building. Of particular significance is a natural hollow containing an exceptionally large assemblage of Early Neolithic Carinated Bowl pottery, provisionally radiocarbon dated to the c. 40th–38th century BC. Elsewhere on the site, a tree hollow contained more Neolithic pottery alongside large quantities of struck flint tools and flint-working debitage.

As well as advancing understanding of Suffolk’s past, charcoal samples taken from the excavated Neolithic and medieval features are contributing to important ongoing research into carbon sequestration. Samples of the wood charcoal are being dated and analysed by the University of Nottingham’s Biochar Demonstrator project, which aims to show the potential of biochar materials to sequester atmospheric carbon in the soil. The Early Neolithic charcoal from this site shows only minimal degradation after being buried for some 6000 years, helping to prove the long-term stability and viability of this method of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it in the ground.

Nov 19

A Middle Anglo-Saxon Landscape Beneath Grantchester’s High Street

By Conferences, News

This Saturday’s Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society Autumn Conference will feature new findings from 19 High Street, Grantchester, presented by Judy Mlynarska and Rita Pedro. PCA’s recent work on the site has revealed one of the most informative sequences seen in the Cambridge region for some time.

The excavation revealed layers of activity from the Early Iron Age through to the medieval period, but the most striking discovery is a Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement of unexpectedly high status. Excavation exposed ditched enclosures, traces of buildings and a series of ‘service features’, such as cess pits, waste pits and cooking pits. Together they give a detailed picture of how the settlement was organised and how people used the space. Notable finds included decorated needles or dress pins, and a rare fragment of an amber bead.

What emerges is a community that shaped its surroundings. The inhabitants farmed the surrounding fields and almost certainly made use of the nearby River Cam, for fishing and for movement of goods and people. Well-preserved Middle Anglo-Saxon sites of this scale are uncommon in the region, and the Grantchester evidence adds meaningful depth to our understanding of how rural settlements operated during this period.

For anyone with an interest in the early medieval landscape of Cambridgeshire, this presentation will be a highlight of the conference.

WHEN: Saturday November 22

WHERE: University Faculty of Law, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DZ

Click here for the full programme

All are welcome!

Nov 17

Front-Cover Find: A Medieval Bone Flute from Huntingdon

By Published Articles

The Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (PCAS) Volume CXIV features PCA on the front cover once again, this time with a striking find from Huntingdon: a medieval bone flute made from a pig’s tibia.

While bone flutes were common in the medieval period, they were usually carved from sheep or goat tibiae, or the wing bones of domesticated birds like geese. The use of pig bone is unusual, and even more remarkable is how well it has survived; complete medieval flutes are very rare finds.

It’s a small object, but one that gives a real sense of medieval life, the sounds people would have heard, and the ways everyday objects were made. A simple flute, but one that deserves its front-cover moment!

Nov 17

Rediscovering Little End

By Published Articles

An article by Isobel Woolhouse has just been published in Current Archaeology, exploring the traces of Little End, a small hamlet that once stood on the edge of Eaton Socon, Cambridgeshire. Though long lost beneath modern development, the community has re-emerged through PCA’s recent excavations.

The work reveals a cluster of modest cottages from the 18th and 19th centuries, the homes of farm labourers, laundresses, and shopkeepers. These were ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet the combination of archaeological evidence, historic records, and local memories turns the site into something unexpectedly vivid. Broken ceramics, reused bricks, a small shop, a pair of sisters earning a living through laundry work: each thread helps rebuild the character of a place otherwise almost forgotten.

Rather than focusing on grand houses or elite stories, the article highlights the quiet, everyday world that shaped the rural landscape. It’s a thoughtful look at how small settlements functioned, changed, and ultimately disappeared, and why they still matter.

Click here to read Isobel’s article

Nov 06

CBA Autumn London Archaeological Forum 2025

By News

From Roman engineering to forgotten medieval estates and the people behind the bones, this autumn’s London Archaeological Forum (LAF) brings together three very different glimpses into the city’s deep past.

Tuesday 18 November 2025, 6pm
UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY

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Jessica Bryan, Project Officer at MOLA, will discuss “MOLA excavations at 50 Fenchurch Street: An overview of the archaeological work to date.”
Between January 2023 and April 2025, work at the site revealed early Roman infrastructure, the medieval All Hallows Staining church and burial ground, and later commercial activity – a sequence that captures two thousand years of change in the City.

Dr Ellen Green, Post-Excavation Project Officer and Osteoarchaeologist with AOC Archaeology, will speak on “Voices from the Graveyard: The people of St Botolph’s without Aldgate.”
Her osteobiographical approach focuses on the smaller, individual stories behind the skeletal data, giving a more personal insight into life and death in the past.

Ian Hogg, Project Officer (Fieldwork) with Archaeology South-East, will give the first public account of “415 Wick Lane, Old Ford.”
Excavations in 2017–18 uncovered the remains of a lost medieval residence, known historically as Gissing Place. Once a substantial house surrounded by wharfs, barns and a possible malt house, its location and story had been forgotten until ASE’s work brought it back to light.

As usual, the evening will continue at a nearby pub for anyone who wants to talk further or catch up with colleagues.

The Forum is open to anyone interested in London’s archaeology, whether working in the field or simply curious about the city’s past.

🎟 Free registration:
Eventbrite – Autumn London Archaeological Forum 2025

Enquiries: becky.wallower@dial.pipex.com

Nov 05

A Weekend at St Mary’s, Houghton

By News, Outreach

We were delighted to return to St Mary’s Church, Houghton, last weekend to share the findings from our recent below-ground works with the local community.

The talk, by Michael Joyce and Will Stafford, explored the history of the church and the surrounding area, drawing connections between the archaeological discoveries and the village’s medieval past. The event was well attended, with the audience engaging enthusiastically through questions and discussion.

The Rector, Geoff Boucher, praised the event, commenting:

“Just the atmosphere in the building and the questions that were asked indicated to me that the presentation was very well received. It was engaging on the local level and the wider historical level. There was also a wholesome sense of completion to the project in the churchyard and a sharing with the community that all had been done professionally, respectfully, caringly. There were plenty of positive comments on the evening and since which confirm how much the evening was appreciated. A proper coming together of the local community in the church building which maybe our medieval forebears would have recognised.”

The weekend concluded with the rededication ceremony, led by the Bishop of Ely, marking an important milestone in the ongoing care and preservation of St Mary’s Church.

As part of the project, our team also documented several unique features, including a previously forgotten Eucharist inscription, identified by Will during the recording at the church.

These photos capture both the history of St Mary’s and the warmth of the community that came together to celebrate it. Many thanks to everyone who joined us.

Nov 05

A New Chapter for PCA

By News

As of 31 December 2025, there will be changes to the Board of Directors at PCA. Josephine Brown shall be stepping down from her role as Managing Director and retiring from PCA. Gary Brown will at the same time be retiring from PCA and from the Board. It is their intention that the company continues to operate after their departure, with as little change as possible for staff and clients.

The other board directors, will, as of 31 December 2025, be taking over management of the company, to provide seamless continuity. Chris Mayo will be the new Managing Director of PCA, with Peter Moore, Vicki Ridgeway and Mark Hinman continuing as Directors.

In the new board, with Chris as MD, Peter will continue to lead fieldwork projects and provide advice in all areas of operations across the company, drawing on his extensive experience as the remaining director from the first incarnation of PCA Ltd. Vicki will remain Company Secretary and maintain her role as Head of Post-excavation, continuing to build on PCA’s reputation and capability across this significant area of our operations. Mark will take on a new role as Chief Executive Officer, with a remit to develop the company’s ability to deliver projects at scale and new opportunities for the company, building and solidifying our position within the sector and amongst its peers, in addition to continuing his H&S responsibilities. Chris will take over all the roles currently undertaken by Josephine, including heading up the Board of Directors, to ensure that the company continues to be resilient and respected as a prominent player in the UK’s commercial archaeology sector.

The new Board is keen to build on and continue the success and growth of the last 32 years. There will be no change to the way the company is structured and run, and there will be no changes to the range of services provided. PCA will continue to provide the same high standard archaeological services to all our clients and their agents and consultants.

Nov 05

Lithic Studies Society 2025: Early Neolithic Discoveries from West Suffolk

By News, Outreach

Laura Desrosiers-Whalley and Lawrence Morgan-Shelbourne will be presenting at the Lithic Studies Society Conference this week, discussing preliminary findings from our recent excavations at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.

The 2024 fieldwork revealed a sealed Early Neolithic midden deposit rich in flint and pottery, offering an exceptional glimpse into activity around 3800 BC. From a large, naturally formed hollow, over 1,400 struck flints were recovered, alongside a substantial assemblage of Carinated Bowl tradition ceramics, some of the earliest pottery used by farming communities in Britain.

The flint assemblage includes both knapping debris and retouched pieces, but evidence suggests tool-making was not taking place on site. Instead, the material appears to have been accumulated through middening.

Radiocarbon dates place this activity firmly within the earliest Neolithic horizon, providing a rare opportunity to explore how early communities made, used, and discarded their tools. The site has important implications for understanding Early Neolithic depositional practices and the relationship between lithic and ceramic assemblages across southern Britain.

Join Laura and Lawrence at the conference to hear more about this remarkable site and its significance for Early Neolithic studies.

📍 Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL), Leicester
🗓 7–8 November 2025