COPA: Professional Archaeology for HS2

  • DATE WRITTEN:
  • READING TIME: 2 minutes

We are pleased to announce that a new website has been launched today www.coparchaeology.co.uk to showcase the capability of the UK’s largest ever consortium of professional archaeologists. COPA is formed from Cotswold Archaeology; Oxford Archaeology and Pre-Construct Archaeology, three of the largest and most successful archaeological companies in the country. We have a combined annual turnover of over £25m and between us 92 years of experience in the delivery of complex archaeological projects.

We have come together to allow us to bid for elements of the archaeological work required during the construction of Phase 1 of the HS2 high speed railway line between London and Birmingham. We anticipate that archaeological fieldwork will commence in 2017 and last for several years, and we want to be involved in what is likely to be the largest programme of archaeological investigation ever seen in this country. We have a set of established offices within easy reach of the route of HS2.

ExcavationCOPA is a natural fit as all three partners have a proven record of working together. Oxford and Pre-Construct have collaborated on a number of projects, including the Thameslink railway improvement in London; Cotswold and Oxford are currently working on a complex excavation in Oxfordshire, and Pre-Construct and Cotswold jointly delivered the investigations in advance of the Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol. We are therefore a tried and trusted consortium with a history of collaboration and partnership.

Neil Holbrook, CA’s Chief Executive, said We are delighted to have formed COPA with our long-established partners, and we will collectively be working hard over the coming months as we seek to secure our involvement in this unique opportunity to transform our knowledge of the past societies that once lived on the line of the new railway.

Related articles

View all

SHARE’s Rare Roman villa: our 2026 findings

A rare Roman villa, with a bathhouse, outbuildings and a mosaic have been uncovered by university students and local volunteers in Devon’s...
07/08/2026
Men and women standing around a table at Gloucester's Store to Store Discovery Centre

Gloucester’s Store to Store community project is back!

Working with the Museum of Gloucester and with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, 2025’s ‘Store to Store’ re-archiving project has...
16/07/2026
A fragment of dark, rough pottery with imprinted textured patterns held in a hand against a blurred background of purple flowers.

Not just winging it! – How bird bone shaped prehistoric pottery

Potters would often arrange a series of impressions in rows or zones to create a repetitive, textured pattern over the pot’s surface,...
30/06/2026