Three become one with the renaming of the York, Nottingham and Sheffield commercial archaeology and heritage branches of York Archaeological Trust. From 5 November 2021, York Archaeology is the name that will bring together the teams of Trent & Peak Archaeology, ArcHeritage and York Archaeological Trust’s York team.
“The change of name more accurately reflects the way that our commercial archaeology teams work across the organisation. We have a fantastic team of experts in a host of different disciplines based across the three offices in Nottingham, York and Sheffield, and for some time now, we’ve been building project teams based upon who has the best skills for a particular job,” comments director of archaeology, Dr Howard Jones. “We recognise that when clients contact different team members, it can be disconcerting if the phone or email is answered with different company names, so this name change is a simple fix for that.”
The name change will be accompanied by some technological changes across the organisation to facilitate team working, including the introduction of a new VOIP (voice over internet protocol) telecoms system which will increase accessibility of the teams, whether they are in the office, working from home or out in the field.
“Whilst our field teams carried on working throughout the pandemic, like many other companies, we have become far more accustomed to working from home over the last year, making the old desk phones largely redundant. Bringing our communications across the group into line with a system that links to mobile phones and laptops rather than wired desktop handsets gives us increased flexibility to respond to enquiries more quickly,” adds Howard.
A new logo and website have been created to reflect the new group-wide name and social media accounts will be merged to give a consistent voice across all communications.
David Jennings, chief executive of York Archaeological Trust, is pleased with the move: “Over the last couple of years, we’ve successfully tendered for larger contracts that make good use of the people and skills from across the organisation, enabling us to develop a thriving and constantly evolving Archaeology and Heritage team ready to take on any project nationwide. It makes sense that this capacity is recognised as being from a single organisation; the name ‘York Archaeology’ reflects its roots in York Archaeological Trust while it continues to grow its reputation as one of the leading providers of archaeological, curatorial and conservation services in the country.”
York Archaeology will also partner with The JORVIK Group – YAT’s attractions and events team – on larger projects that reach beyond archaeology. “We know from our experience with JORVIK Viking Centre and outreach projects across the country that our job shouldn’t end once a dig and report is complete; heritage assets need to be shared and celebrated, helping people to develop pride in their local heritage alongside civic pride. Placemaking – changing perceptions of a destination, similar to how we built York’s reputation as a Viking city – is becoming more prevalent and important for towns and cities with pride in their identity, and our work in this area, from public events to building visitor attractions, is a real area of potential growth based on an unrivalled track record.”
