[1][3] After Norwood, Addyman moved on to Peterhouse at Cambridge University, obtaining a degree in archaeology, and in 1960 directing excavations at Maxey, Cambridgeshire.

[1] Addyman's path was bent towards academia when in 1971 he was commissioned to analyse the impact of a proposed road in York.

[6] Addyman and the Trust oversaw the publication of more than 60 volumes about the archaeology of York, and added tens of thousands of items to their collection.

[2] "Archaeologists retire to do archaeology," he said at the time;[2] he is currently the chairman of the Malton Museum Foundation, a position he has held since 2012, the president of the York Civic Trust, and since 2007 the director of Continuum Group Ltd.[1][10] In addition to his primary occupations, Addyman has served in various capacities for many organisations.

He also served as a trustee of the National Coal Mining Museum from 1995 until 2002, and as governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of York from 2006 to 2007.

[12] In 2015 he was one of four individuals awarded the President's Medal by the British Academy, alongside Darren Henley, Elizabeth Livingstone, and Michael Wood.

These lectures are held annually at Peterhouse, Cambridge, UK and are co-hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

[1][15] She died on 25 November 2016;[1][15] the two had met while he was excavating an Anglo-Saxon village in Devon as a research assistant at Queen's University Belfast, and she was a doctoral student from Atlanta, Georgia.