Wessex Archaeology

Wessex Archaeology is a company with limited liability registered in England, No. 1712772 and is a Registered Charity in England and Wales, No. 287786; and in Scotland, Scottish Charity No. SC042630.

Founded in 1979 as the Wessex Archaeological Committee, its name changed in 1983 to the Trust for Wessex Archaeology and became one of the first rescue archaeology units in the country, focussing on the rich concentration of sites in and around Salisbury Plain. In 2005, its name changed again, to Wessex Archaeology Limited, trading as "Wessex Archaeology".

Since the advent of developer-funded archaeology with PPG 16 and its successor, PPS5, it has expanded its commercial operations across the UK with offices in Rochester, Sheffield. WA opened its Scottish office in Edinburgh in the Spring of 2010. It includes a large marine archaeology department. Further regional offices were opened in Wales and Bristol in 2014.

Wessex Archaeology is a registered charity with stated aims: "to promote the advancement of the education of the public in the subjects of culture, arts, heritage and science through the pursuit of archaeology".

The results of its archaeological investigations are lodged with local authorities, and an increasing number can now be accessed online via Wessex Archaeology's website, or via the Archaeology Data Service's OASIS index.

Phil Harding of archaeological television programme Time Team works for Wessex Archaeology.