WSP Cultural Heritage & Archaeology team are pleased to have been appointed by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists in partnership with FAME and Historic England to carry out a review of archaeological evaluation strategies. The EVALS1 project will sound out professionals across the heritage sector to understand current practice of intrusive archaeological evaluation in England, with the overall aim of achieving strategic improvements through a consensus on what is effective and proportionate.

Over the coming months we will be holding a series of workshops with representatives with the residential, aggregates and infrastructure sectors, with national bodies and with archaeological contractors, to gather data and opinion.

The results will form the basis of a report in November 2021 running concurrently with a study by Richard Higham whose doctoral research involves detailed spatial modelling of trial trenching strategies, based on case study data.

WSP is one of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary professional services firms and has one of the fastest growing Cultural Heritage and Archaeology teams in the UK, with 30 permanent staff providing expert independent heritage advice to the public and private sectors throughout all stages of a project life cycle. The team has substantive experience of contracting, combined with a multidisciplinary and client-focussed approach to the purpose and effective design of archaeological evaluation works.

The project team will be sending out a call to archaeological contractors, consultants and Local Authorities for case studies soon – what worked, what didn’t and what you would do differently if you were able to start again? If you are interested in providing a case study, please contact Natasha Powers natasha.powers@wsp.com