Chesterton Station Interchange, Chesterton Sidings, Cambridge

Oxford Archaeology East was commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council to undertake a desk-based assessment of land at Chesterton Station Interchange, Chesterton Sidings in advance of construction of a proposed new railway station and associated facilities. The aim of the assessment was to define the archaeological potential of the Site and it will be used by the Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Officer to determine the archaeological potential of the site and subsequently the scope of any further archaeological investigation.
The proposed development Site lies on the northern fringe of the historic City of Cambridge, in the parish of Milton. There are no Scheduled Monuments or Listed Buildings within the Site. Quarrying of the river terrace gravels in the area has brought to light Palaeolithic hand axes and there is evidence of Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic worked flint from the alluvial flats on the other side of the River Cam.
Although situated on the margins of settlement today this was not necessarily always the case as there is evidence of Late Iron Age and Roman settlement in close proximity. There is also the possibility of Late Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon burials being present in the southern part of the Site.
The Site is thought to have been fields from the Medieval period up until the mid 19thcentury when the railway was built and subsequently its sidings. Almost all the sidings went out of use in the late 1980s and the Site is now largely derelict.