May 1st 2009 marks our 30th anniversary.
Wessex Archaeology was founded as the Wessex Archaeological Committee on 1st May 1979 - the last of the regional units to be created by the Department of Environment (the DoE, now English Heritage). This brought together individual archaeologists in Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Wiltshire, plus some strays in need of a home. In 1983 the name changed to the Trust for Wessex Archaeology, and it became the not-for-profit charitable company which it remains today.
Wessex Archaeology's archivists will be chronicling our beginnings and evolution in our new history section, where you can currently read about our first five years.
