Reading-based Thames Water looks to the past with new appointment
The utility company has just named its new archaeologist!
Last updated 26th Feb 2021
It's not a job you might automatically link with a utility company but Thames Water has just named its new archaeologist.
Dr Victoria Reeve will help ensure vital infrastructure projects at historically important sites across London and the Thames Valley are carried out sensitively and sympathetically.
Victoria, who lives in Thatcham with her husband and two children, said: “The beauty of this region is that we’ve got everything: Stone Age, Iron Age, Roman history, you name it. In London you can’t stick a spade in the ground without finding something.
“Most of us would love to find a ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ of gold coins and jewellery, but it’s the simple connection with a person I find most fascinating, like a clay pipe that someone once smoked.”
Working with organisations like Historic England and the Museum of London Archaeology, Victoria will ensure Thames Water’s work to upgrade its water pipes and sewers doesn’t impact any archaeologically important sites.
The company’s engineers regularly unearth fascinating finds under streets and fields, including over two dozen 3,000-year-old human remains while protecting a rare chalk stream in Oxfordshire and one of the best-preserved World War Two air raid shelters while tackling leaks in London.
Victoria said: “Right at the very start of a project we’ll look at where it is and use sources like archive records and old maps and photos to determine if there’s the potential to find something of interest. If there’s something there, we’ll bring in a team of archaeologists to excavate and record everything properly - or change the plans completely.
“It’s important we look after our history and do everything we can to preserve it because it’s a finite resource. By having someone at Thames Water who can oversee the whole process, we can make sure we’re doing it properly, and that our contractors share the same values.
“We also have so many amazing buildings in our own portfolio. Archaeology isn’t just about stuff that’s thousands of years old, it’s places like our spectacular Victorian pumping stations and underground reservoirs. We’ve got so much of a story to tell people.”