Dr Anwen Cooper

Anwen Cooper leads the UKRI-funded ‘Rewilding’ later prehistory project at Oxford Archaeology in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford, Exeter, York and Toulouse, Historic England, Knepp Castle Estate and Hepple Wilds. Her main research interests are in later prehistoric Britain and Ireland, and in interpretative approaches to landscape, material culture, and archaeological practice. She has worked across the sector in British archaeology, as a field surveyor, an excavation director, a Local Authority development control officer, and a postdoctoral researcher on multidisciplinary collaborative projects at the Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Reading. Her PhD explored knowledge creation during archaeology’s ‘professionalisation’ from 1970-2010, drawing on ideas from anthropology, oral history and science and technology studies. Before working the ‘Rewilding’ project, she collaborated with a team at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, to bring to publication the spectacular Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement at Must Farm, Cambridgeshire. In wider Oxford Archaeology projects, Anwen has worked with the Forestry Commission to investigate the relationship between Tree Roots and Archaeology, and is currently working with Historic England, Natural England, Buckinghamshire Council and BioScan UK to explore the role of archaeology in offsite Biodiversity Net Gain schemes, and with the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford on archaeological aspects of the Evenlode Landscape Recovery project.

Neil Redfern

CBA Executive Director

Neil joined the CBA in 2020 after a distinguished career in heritage, most recently as Development Advice Team Leader and Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic England. 

During his time at Historic England Neil led teams delivering award-winning development advice in Yorkshire, developed their response to major environmental threats as part of the National Heritage Protection Plan and initiated a major project on the Yorkshire Wolds to address monuments at risk from cultivation, amongst other achievements. 

Prior to this, Neil spent ten years with English Heritage as North Yorkshire Team Leader, Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Field Monument Warden. 

Between 1997 and 2000 he worked with the CBA as a Project Officer on its Defence of Britain project.