The Buckinghamshire Council Archaeology Service (BCAS) is small team of four, Lucy and Phil, our two planning archaeologists and Julia and Paul, our two Historic Environment Record officers. We maintain the Historic Environment Record and provide expert advice and guidance to our planning colleagues and interested parties for sites across the whole of Buckinghamshire.

Since the start of the Covid restrictions BCAS, along with all council staff, have all been based at home. On Tuesdays, we start the day with an online meeting, where we catch up on everyone’s work programmes, and share interesting sites and finds. Major infrastructure is dominating Buckinghamshire and our workload at present, and numerous HS2 sites of interest are discussed, including works at the medieval St Mary’s Church and the Roman town at Fleet Marston.

Following the team meeting, Lucy attends a site monitoring visit. Always a great trip away from the desk, site visits allow archaeological fieldwork to be monitored to ensure best practise, and also to offer local expertise and guidance. Today’s site visit is to a site being cleared for a new cycle path. Located adjacent to an area excavated a decade ago, a continuation of the Roman settlement is uncovered, with a number of cremations and boundary ditches excavated.

Meanwhile, Julia is busy creating a new record in the specialist Historic Environment Record database. An excavation report from a commercial archaeological contractor working on a development site in Buckingham has revealed evidence for medieval pits and property boundary ditches, dated by 12th and 13th century pottery, at the rear of the medieval street frontage. This is part of a consistent pattern of medieval town centre occupation that has been emerging over recent years.

The Historic Environment Record is at the heart of everything the Archaeology team do. It provides the evidence base that Lucy uses in her planning advice; it’s used by developers’ archaeologists in preparing schemes for fieldwork; and is the repository for recording the results of archaeological fieldwork in the county. The records are made available online through Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal for residents, community groups, students and the public to discover what’s known about the past in their local patch.

The final task of the day is an evening online public talk. Outreach is a key part of our job, and we are always happy to share recent discoveries with local groups and societies. The most popular talk at present is ‘The Archaeology of HS2 in Buckinghamshire’, with regular talks being given by both BCAS and the HS2 team.