About Us

Animal BoneAnimal Bone Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest archaeological practices in the country, working across the UK to further our knowledge of our past. We are a company that works with councils and developers to ensure that archaeological remains are recorded and preserved before work begins on new development schemes.

We have a wide range of services to offer: not only do we carry out excavations, but also building surveys, underwater archaeology, coastal studies, human remains analysis, academic publication and specialist illustration and computer modelling. Our work is overseas as well as in the UK: we have worked in Cyprus and Gibraltar, for example.

Wessex Archaeology was set up in 1979 as a small unit in Salisbury. It now employs over 200 archaeologists, but retains its charitable status and its remit to encourage interest in archaeology and extend knowledge about it to a wider public. More information may be found in our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

Contact Us

Salisbury Headquarters

Wessex Archaeology (Salisbury)
Portway House, Old Sarum Park
Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 6EB
UK
Email - John Dillon
Phone: +441722326867
Fax: +441722337562

Registered Charity No. 287786
Registered limited company No. 1712772

London Office

Wessex Archaeology (London)
Unit 113, The Chandlery, 50 Westminster Bridge Road
London, SE1 7QY
UK
Email - Chris Moore:
Email - Lawrence Pontin:
Phone: +442079537494
Fax: +442079537499

 

Website Contact

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about this website, please email our web team.

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Directions By Train

There are direct train services to Salisbury from London, Basingstoke, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Exeter, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Swindon, among other stations.

The station is in the centre of Salisbury and is about three miles from our offices. There are taxis at the station and the fare is about £6.

Timetable information may be found on the National Rail website.

Directions from Bath / Warminster

  1. Take the A36 signed Salisbury and Southampton.

  2. You will pass through Wilton and into the centre of Salisbury.

  3. You will need to follow signs for Amesbury and pass through two large roundabouts so that you are on the A345 heading north through the city.

  4. You will pass out of Salisbury, past Old Sarum hillfort on your left, and after a few hundred metres you will come to a roundabout with the left hand turn marked for Amesbury and Stonehenge, the middle one for a Park and Ride facility and the right-hand turn marked The Winterbournes. Take this last turning.

  5. Go straight over a smaller roundabout a hundred metres further on and continue for another four hundred metres where you will see a garage marked Ottons.

  6. Take the right turning here and follow the road, which curves to the right, to the end. Wessex Archaeology is at the end of the road.

Directions from Devizes

  1. Take the A360 into the centre of Salisbury. Follow signs for Amesbury and Stonehenge.

  2. You will need to follow signs for Amesbury and pass through several roundabouts so that you are on the A345 heading north through the city.

  3. You will pass out of Salisbury, past Old Sarum hillfort on your left, and after a few hundred metres you will come to a roundabout with the left hand turn marked for Amesbury and Stonehenge, the middle one for a Park and Ride facility and the right-hand turn marked The Winterbournes. Take this last turning.

  4. Go straight over a smaller roundabout a hundred metres further on and continue for another four hundred metres where you will see a garage marked Ottons.

  5. Take the right turning here and follow the road, which curves to the right, to the end. Wessex Archaeology is at the end of the road.

Directions from London

  1. Take the M3 westwards. Come off at Junction 8 onto the A303 westwards towards Andover

  2. Go past Andover into Amesbury. Take a left turning for Salisbury (A345).

  3. You will reach a roundabout a half-mile north of Salisbury with a Park and Ride facility as the left hand turning. Take the second turning on this roundabout, marked The Winterbournes.

  4. Go straight over a smaller roundabout a hundred metres further on and continue for another four hundred metres where you will see a garage marked Ottons.

  5. Take the right turning here and follow the road, which curves to the right, to the end. Wessex Archaeology is at the end of the road.

Directions from Southampton

  1. Follow the A36 into Salisbury. Go straight over the first roundabout

  2. At the second roundabout, take the second exit (right) onto a short dual carriageway.

  3. At the third roundabout take the second exit, onto another short dual carriageway (signposted Warminster/Bristol).

  4. At the fourth roundabout take the third exit (right) onto Castle Road (signposted Amesbury)

  5. You will pass out of Salisbury, past Old Sarum hillfort on your left, and after a few hundred metres you will come to a roundabout with the left hand turn marked for Amesbury and Stonehenge, the middle one for a Park and Ride facility and the right-hand turn marked The Winterbournes. Take this last turning.

  6. Go straight over a smaller roundabout a hundred metres further on and continue for another four hundred metres where you will see a garage marked Ottons.

  7. Take the right turning here and follow the road, which curves to the right, to the end. Wessex Archaeology is at the end of the road.

About our website

This website reflects the work of Wessex Archaeology, one of the country’s leading archaeological practices. It includes details of our projects, our services and of archaeology in general. It is a tool for researchers, job-hunters, the media and anyone interested in archaeology.

Read our Web Team Blog for the latest news about features and services that we offer online.

If you have any suggestions or comments about our website, please email webmaster@wessexarch.co.uk

FEATURES OF PARTICULAR NOTE

USING THE SITE

Many images may be clicked to view a larger version. Most images within our photo gallery are covered by a Creative Commons license, and may be used for non-commercial use without the need to contact us directly. Please take time to read the license if you would like to use our gallery photos.

CREDITS

Tom Goskar is Web Manager for Wessex Archaeology. Migration of content to the Drupal content management system was undertaken by Richard Potter.

The website is written by our staff.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Unless otherwise expressly stated, copyright or similar rights in the material presented on this site, both text and graphics, is owned either by Wessex Archaeology. Some photographs are copyright of other organisations.

Readers have limited permission to print or download extracts from these pages for their personal use only and are not entitled to use this material for commercial purposes without our permission.

Unless with our permission, no part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted to or stored in any other web site or publication.

For more information on copyright matters, please contact Julie Gardiner by e-mail or by telephone (01722 343413).

DISCLAIMER

Wessex Archaeology is committed to the highest standard of information and every attempt has been made to present up to date and accurate information. However, we give no guarantee as to the accuracy of the information on this web site and accept no liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of reliance on this information.

TECHNICAL CREDITS

The main Wessex Archaeology website at http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/ is powered by Drupal, an open source content management system. Subdomains such as http://splash.wessexarch.co.uk/ are powered by WordPress, an open source blogging engine.

The design of this website is based upon the open source "Deco" theme developed for the Google Summer of Code 2007, and modified by the Wessex Archaeology Web Team.

Some of the icons used on this website are from the "Silk" set by Mark James.

The Lightbox script by Lokesh Dhakar is used to show larger versions of images on some of our pages. Lightbox is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Frequently Asked Questions


What is Wessex Archaeology? [top]

Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest archaeological practices in the country, employing 170 archaeologists and working across the country.

We work with councils, developers and heritage organisations to ensure that archaeological remains are recorded and preserved before work begins on new development schemes.

Wessex Archaeology, which was set up in 1979 and is based just outside the medieval city of Salisbury, is also a charity, devoted to educating the public about archaeology through lectures, events and public relations. Our surplus is put back into our charitable work or to improving our service to clients

What does Wessex Archaeology do? [top]

Archaeology in Britain has been revolutionised in the last decade by a change in planning regulations that can require developers to have land archaeologically assessed and excavated before construction begins.

Our projects can range from one archaeologist surveying and recording a disused 19th century inn before it is converted into a restaurant to 25 staff excavating a Roman town in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Wessex Archaeology works in areas such as housing developments, extraction, utilities, road schemes, railway and airport projects – anywhere that has the potential for significant archaeological remains.

Archaeology need not be simply digging in a trench. Wessex Archaeology also carries out building surveys, underwater archaeology, coastal studies, human remains analysis, heritage management, illustration and 3D computer modelling, finds and environmental work and publication.

Not all of our projects are as a result of planning regulations. Wessex is carrying out strategic work for English Heritage by writing a template for assessing sea wrecks, for instance.

Where does Wessex Archaeology work? [top]

We work throughout the country and not just in the Wessex region, though most of our income comes from projects in the south-east of England and London. We are working, for instance, at the T5 terminal at Heathrow and on the Birmingham North Relief Road.

Our work is offshore, too. We have carried out heritage management projects in Guernsey and underwater archaeological projects at several locations off the UK. We also work overseas, including Cyprus and Gibraltar.


Is Wessex Archaeology a company or a charity? [top]

Wessex Archaeology is both a limited company and a registered charity. This reflects our commercial work which funds our remit to educate the public about our work and archaeology in general.

Our company and charitable object is “to promote the education of the public in the subjects of arts, culture, heritage & science through the pursuit of archaeology”.

We employ a full-time Outreach Manager whose role is to promote archaeology to the outside world by giving talks and workshops and organising events.

 

How is Wessex Archaeology funded? [top]

Wessex Archaeology is entirely funded from its commercial work. We do not receive any direct state funding, either from central or local government.

 

Who does Wessex Archaeology employ? [top]

Wessex Archaeology employs more than 170 staff on permanent and fixed-term contracts. Most of these are archaeologists either working in the field or at our offices in Salisbury and London. All of our staff are experienced and trained professionals, most with degrees in archaeology. Some are national experts in their field.

Wessex also employs specialist staff in design, publications, photography, public relations, finance, administration, IT and education.

What has Wessex Archaeology found? [top]

Wessex Archaeology’s staff have made many important discoveries over the last 25 years, many of which are now in museums. Among the most recent important finds was the Amesbury Archer, the Bronze Age man whose skeleton and grave goods are among the richest ever found from this time. Other recent important excavations include a Roman mosaic dating to about 350AD at the former County Hospital site in Dorchester in Dorset. At our two-year excavation at Springhead in Kent in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, we found 80,000 pieces of pottery, coins, brooches and pins, for example.

The finds are taken from the site to Wessex Archaeology’s headquarters, where they are recorded, washed, analysed and stored. All are sent to museums for display. A report is prepared for our clients on what we have found and we frequently prepare a paper on the archaeology to be sent to an academic journal.


How can I become an archaeologist? [top]

Many people want to be archaeologists and it can be very rewarding career. Archaeologists have many specialisms including excavation, buildings, underwater, computing, illustration, artefacts and environmental analysis to name but a few.

Try these links for further information. Our website has a vacancies section, which gives the sort of job requirements needed. Try the links below for more information:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/factsht4.shtml lists courses

Links:


Do you take volunteers? [top]

We occasionally take volunteers, usually in our post-excavation section and not generally on fieldwork. This work involves helping to wash, record and store the remains we find on site which have been brought back to our head office just outside Salisbury.

However, we do run a training course in excavation, survey and finds during the summer.  See a report of the training dig from summer 2004. For more details, contact our education manager: m.bunyard@wessexarch.co.uk

Blogs

Welcome to the Wessex Archaeology blogs section. Our blogs feature our latest news and discoveries, as well as discussions about the diverse range of work that we undertake both in the field and "behind the scenes" at our offices and laboratories. The orange RSS Feed Icon icon links directly to the RSS feed for the blog or resource, allowing you to subscribe to our updates.

Thematic Blogs:

Project Blogs:

Photos:

Documents and Reports

Videos

Podcasts

 Updates