Fordham Road, Newmarket

A desk-based assessment was conducted by Oxford Archaeology East for a plot of land to the west of Fordham Road, Newmarket (TL 632 672). It is proposed that a Solar Farm be constructed on the 10 ha site. The land is located directly to the west of the county border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with the town of Newmarket 3km to the south and the villages of Snailwell 1km to the east, Landwade 1km to the north-west and Exning 1.8km to the south-west. The desk-based assessment has revealed that the site is situated within a landscape rich in archaeological remains. Within a 2.5km radius of the site there is evidence of early prehistoric occupation, Bronze Age and possibly Neolithic burial mounds, Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age settlements and a high status Late Iron Age cremation burial. The Icknield Way and another prehistoric route, Street Way, run to the south of the site. In the Roman period there are two villas locally as well as settlement as close as 0.5km to the south. The most significant Anglo Saxon sites are a cemetery on Windmill Hill in Exning and a Late Saxon settlement further to the south. All medieval and post-medieval sites and buildings are concentrated
within the villages of Exning, Landwade and Snailwell. Cartographic sources show that the site has been undeveloped agricultural land since at least the late 18th century. The evidence increases the probability of buried archaeological remains existing within the potential development area. If remains do exist, they are most likely to be prehistoric or Roman in date. As the site has never been developed, any remains should survive relatively intact although the effects of ploughing may have caused
minor truncation.