Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 111

Excavations at New Road, Melbourn, in South Cambridgeshire, have uncovered significant prehistoric remains dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age period. Natural hollows within the chalk bedrock contained the earliest traces of activity at the site - in the Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic period - succeeded by scattered pits in the Late Neolithic and two Early Bronze Age barrows, one of which enclosed a Beaker-type burial. The principal finding was a Middle Bronze Age settlement, comprising a ditched enclosure of a form typical for the period, and a more unusual system of fields and paths defined by fencelines. Set amongst the settlement’s boundaries were post-built roundhouses, pits and wells, with the discrete features producing most of the associated finds. The findings make an important contribution to the study of Middle Bronze Age settlement form, highlighting the variability that exists across the region.

Excavations on a parcel of land off Trafalgar Way, Bar Hill, in the parish of Lolworth, exposed an area of enclosed Middle to Late Iron Age settlement, lying adjacent to a small stream on the northern edge of the clay uplands of western Cambridgeshire. Although typical in many ways of other enclosure complexes recently excavated in the area, this site makes an important addition to the study of later prehistoric land-use (including tentative evidence for the rearing of horses) and will enhance the data-set of much larger programmes of investigation currently underway on the Cambridgeshire claylands.

Excavations by Albion Archaeology in advance of development at Land east of Glebe Farm, Gidding Road, Sawtry, revealed settlement remains dating from the middle–late Iron Age to the Romano-British period. The earliest remains comprised a ladder enclosure, characterised by an extensive linear boundary with a series of large enclosures extending from its south-east side. Smaller internal enclosures and a roundhouse formed a settlement focus within the larger enclosure system. Occupation continued through the late Iron Age/early Romano-British period with the settlement focus shifting to the south-west. The remains comprised a large enclosure with smaller internal enclosures, partitions, storage pits and postholes. Evidence for Romano-British activity was largely confined to the south part of the site with abandonment of the earlier settlement by the end of the 1st century AD. The most prominent features were a re-cut boundary and possible trackway aligned NW-SE across the south end of the site. Beyond the boundary, partially revealed rectilinear enclosures suggested the settlement continued beyond the limits of excavation to the south. A limestone threshing floor within a shallow pit is indicative of crop processing during the Romano-British period.

Two copper-alloy objects from Cambridgeshire, a spear head and a fitting, carrying inscriptions dedicated respectively to Silvanus and (probably) to Mars, were reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2017 and 2018. Found. c. ten km west of Cambridge, both represent the use of objects hitherto unattested as media for Roman religious writing. This paper discusses the texts and media of the inscriptions, identifying them as dedications which extend our understanding of votive practice in rural Britannia. Found with abundant associated metal-detected objects of Roman date, including further likely votives, their discovery enables the identification of a previously undocumented Roman religious site in the Cambridgeshire claylands, likely connected to the many farmsteads identified by intensive archaeological fieldwork in its environs.

The location of “Cratendune”, recorded as the first site of Etheldreda’s residence at Ely, has been argued to have been located close to Bedwell Hey Farm House, Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire. This paper reviews available information regarding Cratendune and reports on recent work carried out at Bedwell Hey in connection with this lost settlement. Geophysical surveys and excavations from 2018 to 2021 have confirmed a Roman settlement to the west of the farm within a possible enclosure with a further discrete settlement, as yet undated, within its west boundary. Test pits were excavated in neighbouring fields to the north where an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered during the construction of RAF Witchford airfield in the 1940s.

The most significant of medieval fenland river improvements was the diversion of the Little Ouse from its ancient outfall at Wisbech to its present outfall at Lynn. Air photographs, radiocarbon dating, and recent Lidar records, alongside a group of charters, allow this to be more precisely dated. This article suggests a date and context for Little Ouse diversion: concluding that this was undertaken by Bishop Herbert de Losinga around 1100 when he founded Lynn, the writer explores its wider context, involving the 'political' aspect, especially support for monastic houses at Wymondham, Thetford and Ramsey (which gained a new market at Downham), besides changes to fenland access.

Archaeological investigations were undertaken by Pre-Construct Archaeology prior to the re-development of two sites at 22 East Street and 23A-27 West Street, St Ives. No evidence for domestic occupation pre-dating the medieval period was revealed on either site. Evidence of medieval rubbish pitting suggests neither were within the built extent of medieval St Ives but lay outside the core and on marginal land along its northern periphery. The importance of both sites lies in their post-medieval development. The earliest features include large intercutting quarry pits, dug during the 17th century and thereafter back-filled with domestic rubbish, containing cultural artefacts dating to the 17th and 18th century. Their presence argues that both sites had remained on the edge of the medieval town. Domestic rubbish disposal appears to have ceased during the 18th century and both sites were re-landscaped, importing soils as make-up layers to level the ground prior to their redevelopment as part of the 19th century expansion of the town following the arrival of the Great Northern Railway in 1848. Brickwork foundations of former buildings cutting through these make-up layers were encountered on both sites. The West Street building remains are associated with out-buildings and back-plot developments appearing on the later 19th century Ordnance Survey map, while the East Street remains coincide with buildings once part of the Hop Bine public house and its stabling yard. A former stable building associated with the Hop Bine stable yard had survived, albeit in a much altered condition, until its recent demolition.

In 2020 Albion Archaeology excavated 3.1ha of land on the south-east edge of Soham. Evidence for extensive but low level Iron Age activity was revealed, with a large enclosure at the eastern end of the site and a series of enclosures to the west that continued beyond the excavation. There was little evidence of contemporary settlement, and the site appears to have been used in the Iron Age as part of a primarily pastoral landscape, dominated unusually by cattle. Two Iron Age inhumation burials were also uncovered. Further widespread fields/enclosures were identified as being early Roman, but with even less evidence of settlement nearby. The only domestic structures identified during the excavation were two early–middle Anglo-Saxon sunkenfeatured buildings, located at opposite ends of the site to each other. Numerous small pits neighboured the western building, but levels of cultural debris were very low. Later activity on site was restricted primarily to the setting out of post-medieval fields and modern quarrying.

The last couple of years have seen the deaths of a number of people who contributed greatly to knowledge of the past of Cambridgeshire and to CAS. We cannot commemorate them all here, but include obituaries for three of them: John Pickles, David Hall and Audrey Meaney. Christopher Taylor (7 Nov 1935–28 May 2021) was CAS President 1995–6 and Vice-President 1996–2000, a CAS member for many years with many contributions to PCAS, and publications including the Royal Commission volume on West Cambridgeshire. He was a scholar with a national and international reputation; an obituary is not included here because several full obituaries were published last year, including The Times 29th July 2021, The Guardian 9 July 2021, and in other journals. In November 2021 Landscapes 22.1 included a detailed appreciation of his life and work in their ‘Founders’ series, “an intermittent series of short, critical appreciations of scholars, researchers and others whose work and ideas, mainly in Britain, have made particularly sweeping, influential and foundational contributions to the development of historically- and archaeologically-informed landscape studies.” Christopher Taylor’s inclusion in that series speaks to his achievements and his lasting reputation.