Cursus Archaeology Ltd
Archaeological Consultants based in the UK
Archaeological and Heritage Consultation and Mitigation
Project Consultant Jude Alexander Children identifies and assesses risk and provides a mitigation strategy for potential archaeological issues early on in your project, in order to manage impacts upon it, enabling resources to be allocated in a planned and efficient manner, prior to the project stage to reduce impacts on your project cost and timeframe. Project management and site experience of 20 + years in the sector, I will resolve archaeological issues quickly and decisively.
I make it my primary objective to reduce the effects on your project as much as possible, whilst keeping costs sensible, clear and fully transparent, and meeting all the necessary standards.
I deliver services on short notice, and operate anywhere in the UK, on a wide variety of projects and scales, from quarries, to housing developments to home extensions.
Desk Based Assessment
Get in touch with Cursus Archaeology, to talk to an expert, who is approachable and explains things clearly, and in plain language.
Experienced researching forms the basis for archaeological Desk-Based Assessments (DBA’s) which can be necessary when more information is required to understand the potential impacts on the historic environment, and the development project. They can help to empower clients to anticipate requirements, and inform their project design. It can include a walkover survey and/or geophysical survey for an enhanced ability to predict outcomes.
The assessment will inform clients as to the potential impacts of their proposed project on archaeology or heritage both existing on their site, or within its setting, and will then provide a recommendation of the appropriate archaeological programme of work, based on this assessment.
Heritage Impact Assessment
This type of assessment will assess the impact of proposals upon heritage assets (i.e. Listed buildings) such as impact on its setting, and visual impact assessment, and is more often undertaken for sites of known significance such as a Listed Building or Scheduled Monument.
Heritage Statement
Heritage asset is an industry jargon term for anything of archaeological or historic value and importance such as Listed buildings, archaeological sites or Historic Parks and Gardens. This includes all of the above, as well as assessing the significance of assets and will involve assessing impacts upon this significance as result of the client's proposal. It can be a more considered approach to value and meaning.
Heritage Statements inform project design, anticipate planning issues, and recommend mitigation strategies. Cursus Archaeology's expertise will give you an advantage in anticipation of the planning process.
Witten Scheme of Investigation
A WSI is a report that sets out the methodology, research and background information for the archaeology project, then submitted to the Authority to allow archaeological work to commence.
Watching Brief
Undertaking an archaeological Watching Brief, Cursus Archaeology will monitor groundworks within the specified development area. The excavator must be equipped with a toothless ditching/trenching bucket and the driver will be instructed to reduce in approximately 100mm level reductions at a time. This method will be required at all times when being monitored by the archaeologist, based on the requirements as laid out in the Written Scheme of Investigation and specified by the Council Archaeological Advisor, and is essential to be able to properly observe any buried remains which may be uncovered.
Trial Trench Evaluation
Cursus Archaeology’s Archaeological Evaluation service, otherwise known as Trial Trenching (TT), can be opened in pre-planning/determination if land owners wish to anticipate the archaeological potential in advance of planning submission to potentially avoid direct impacts on the development of the site. The size and number of the trenches will be a percentage of total site area, and will ideally be targeted upon potential features identified in a survey.
Excavation
Further archaeological investigation including strip-map-and-record, or full archaeological excavation will be required on either a known site of archaeological significance or if identified during a Watching Brief.
Archaeological programmes of work should be thought of as sequential staged programmes, with each stage continent upon the previous one; such as evaluation as the initial stage, progressing to watching brief and/or as appropriate if significant archaeology is found, as required by NPPF and the Local Planning Authority, to full area stripping, then to full excavation. In cases where the site is not considered to have high archaeological potential, then the latter stages will be avoided. The condition can be discharged at any of these stages without any further work required on the site, if there is no archaeology observed, or sites with sparse archaeology that can be mitigated with limited investigation during watching brief.
Historic Building Recording
Cursus Archaeology undertakes Historic Building Recording to the industry standard Historic England levels 1-3; level 1 being the lowest and least involved. We have worked on Scheduled Monument 12th Century Leeds Castle in Kent, and grade II and II* Listed structures.
Geophysical Survey
Cursus Archaeology undertakes surveying using magnetometry, to scan for potential buried remains, for enhanced desk based assessments.