Stonehenge 181
Image by tjj

That might be the American approach to archaeology but its not the way things done over here.
Most of our archives are carefully stored away.

ALL of our archives are SUPPOSED to be, too. But we're generating so much information--especially due to digs mandated in advance of construction work--that it's far outstripping the space and funds allotted to it. And if you google "archaeological records storage space crisis" the first hit is a bit of tongue-in-cheek responding to http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba12/ba12comm.html. Of course that was ten years ago. Has your British situation vastly improved since then? From the few articles I've just skimmed, it doesn't seem so, but I'm no expert.