Robert Usher

Project Officer

Robert graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2015 with a 2:1 degree in Classical and Historical Archaeology and immediately moved into commercial archaeology working as a geophysicist for Sumo Services. During his time with Sumo, Robert quickly became a site supervisor with the responsibility for planning and coordinating a number of geophysical surveys across the UK.

In 2017 Robert decided to study to become a Buildings Archaeologist, completing a PGC at the University of York in 2019 with a module focus on commercial buildings archaeology. Since joining AOC in March 2019 Robert has been an important member of the AOC survey team, undertaking numerous projects across the UK ranging from industrial mills and factories to villas and historic tenements. Robert is primarily involved in measured building surveys, topographic survey, structural watching briefs and building context recording.

He is also involved in the production of CAD plans created from survey data (including laser scan data) as well as the completion of reporting, including Standing Building Assessments and Historic Building Recording Reports.

Notable projects to date include: the historic building survey of Gladstone’s Land on behalf of the National Trust for Scotland, a 17th-century tenement house situated in the Old Town of Edinburgh; Limefields Weir in West Lothian, designed to imitate Victoria Falls by a personal friend of the explorer David Livingston; various vernacular building projects including farmsteads and stable blocks, and numerous industrial complexes throughout the UK such as the former Peter Scotts Textile Mill complex in Hawick in the Scottish Borders and the former Granton Gasworks Railway Station in Granton, Edinburgh.

More recently, Robert has been involved with the East West Rail infrastructure project in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, recording multiple 19th and 20th century railway stations and bridges along the proposed line connecting Oxford and Cambridge.