My passion for history started with palaeontology. The very idea of uncovering the history of life before us, of being the one to help piece together the story of life in the UK, was always something that appealed to me greatly.

This then evolved into a healthy interest in general history, and I enjoyed history in school immensely because it allowed me to further understand just how we have gotten to where we are, how technology and culture has changed our lives and the way that our understanding of history has progressed from how it was before. Things are always changing—and Archaeology hopes to piece that together to form a comprehensive understanding; from how things were before, as opposed to now.

My first venture into archaeology, however, was a week of Work Experience during my first year of 6th Form. I was lost, I had no idea what I wanted to do, I wasn’t allowed to go back to where I’d done my GCSE level Work Experience, and I raised my concerns with the School’s careers advisor. Allen Archaeology was, at that time, based in Branston and close to me, so it made sense for me to apply. So, for my work experience I was at Lindum Hill getting in people’s way and marvelling at how these people were, as a career, uncovering the history of the local area and piecing together the story of Lincoln—and I think after that week, there was no questioning what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be an Archaeologist.

I started with volunteering, in 6th Form I had Fridays with no lessons, and during that time I was in the office—cleaning the finds and getting to know the people there. It was an isolated job, while everyone else was finding fantastic things on site for me to later clean, it gave me an understanding of Archaeology and increased my knowledge of what was what— I started with almost no experience so I was unable to identify anything unless it was obvious. However, I caught on fairly quickly. CBM generally looks like this, Pottery looks like this, That’s not Archaeology… that’s a fossil.

I volunteered until I finished school, and I applied for a Traineeship which was swiftly answered with a ‘Yes’. Thinking back, I wonder if there was a reason I was thrown into work at the Transport Hub for my first official site; I thought I knew what I would be doing because I had been on sites beforehand and had done research on what to expect when asked to dig, record and draw what we were excavating… but everything was thrown out of the window with Single Context recording. It wasn’t like anything I’d done before, and I was once again getting in the way of those who actually did know what they were doing… it felt very familiar.

But the staff of Allen Archaeology are nothing if not patient, and have given me a comprehensive understanding of what Commercial Archaeology is like and I think I can safely say that I’m not just getting in peoples’ way anymore, i’m actively working on site.

Now, months later and beginning a new year with a job that I love as a Project Archaeologist, I know that I’ll have a bright future focusing on the past. Hopefully, I can continue my development and use the skills I have garnered over my traineeship and time volunteering to combine my passion for the past and personal interest in art.