OW Spotlight! Phillipa Howarth

We recently caught up with Old Westholmian Phillipa Howarth, now working as a Senior Heritage Consultant, to learn more about their career journey since leaving Westholme. From exploring Viking burial sites to advising on major national infrastructure projects such as HS2 and wind farms, their work plays an important role in protecting and preserving Britain’s heritage. In this interview, they reflect on their time at Westholme, the path that led them into archaeology and heritage consultancy, and the valuable lessons they have learned along the way.

How was your Westholme experience?

I enjoyed my time at Westholme, I made some great friends, some of which I am still friends with today.

Could you tell us a little more about your experience as a Senior Heritage Consultant? What does a day-in-the-life look like?

I am a Senior Heritage Consultant for a very large multi-national engineering consultancy. I work on large infrastructure projects, which have included; HS2, HyNet, several projects for National Grid, various wind farm projects and Homes England among others.

I look at how these projects will affect the heritage baseline in the area, for example scheduled monuments, listed buildings, conservation areas, known and potential archaeology.

My work involves a lot of research, visits to archives and site visits to assess the setting of designated heritage assets. I then assess if any mitigation is needed for them. On large infrastructure projects as you can imagine it can involve very large data sets. I then liaise with the statutory organisations such as Historic England, Cadw and Historic Scotland, with the protection of British Heritage at the forefront of our conversations.

What did you do after leaving Westholme to end up in your current role? What is the pathway to becoming a Senior Heritage Consultant?

After leaving Westholme, I went to Winchester School of Art, and while I completed the course, it made me realise that art was not what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do something more down to earth, literally as it turned out. I took a year out, some of it spent doing a snowboarding season, the rest I spent volunteering at Ribchester Roman Museum (where I am now a trustee) and applying to universities to do archaeology; all the while balancing different jobs to make some money whilst away from university. I got a place at Manchester, but as it turns out getting a degree in archaeology doesn’t make you an archaeologist, so I took to volunteering again at a commercial archaeology department Oxford Archaeology (OA) North, who after a couple of months, gave me a permanent position. I worked as a field archaeologist in the commercial sector for 6 years, being promoted to Senior Archaeologist, by the time I left. The Art course did provide useful after all, with some of my archaeological illustrations present in publications, produced by OA North whilst I worked there.

I then took 8 years out of work, to look after my two boys, until they were both at school. The best decision I ever made even though we had no money for a while.

Knowing that field archaeology and young children don’t mix due to the time needed on site and away from home. I used my transferable skills and applied to be an Assistant Heritage Consultant, which is much more office based. I have been with this company nine years and am now a Senior Heritage Consultant.

What have been some of your favourite projects/tasks to work on?

As a field archaeologist it was at Cumwhitton in Cumbria, a Viking grave yard (from which, many of the artefacts can be found in Tully House Museum, Carlise) My favourite projects now are those that involve built heritage, the history and social history of buildings are my favourite, from terraced housing to stately homes, I love it all.

Any advice for current students here at Westholme?

You don’t have to know what you want to do at 16! But unless you are very lucky, things won’t always be handed to you on a plate, get out there, work hard, don’t be afraid to try a few things until something fits, be resilient, be kind, network and make friends, I can’t tell you how many times this has helped me along the way.