98-138 Station Road, Kennett, Cambridgeshire

Between the 17th of July and 6th of November 2017, Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) conducted a programme of archaeological evaluation at land off Station Road, Kennett, Cambridgeshire (TL 69557 67934). The site covers c. 40ha and includes the Scheduled Howe Hill Bronze Age barrow (DCB231; SAM 27169), located on the northern site boundary.
The investigations comprised a survey of aerial photographs, a geophysical survey and a programme of trial trenching. The aerial photography survey was undertaken prior to the fieldwork, whilst fieldwork itself was conducted in three phases, each with a geophysical survey followed by trial trenching.
With the exception of one north-east to south-west aligned linear anomaly, the non-intrusive surveys only registered variations in the underling geology, along with modern services and traces of recent agricultural activity. The trenching confirmed that the linear feature was a long, probably segmented prehistoric boundary ditch. This ditch proved to be one of only three features revealed across 121 trenches; the others comprising an Early Iron Age pit and an undated pit.
Overall, the evaluation revealed remarkably sparse archaeological remains at the site. Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age worked flints recovered from the topsoil and subsoil attest to fleeting episodes of occupation and/or task-based activities over the course of several millennia. Evidence for more sustained activity is potentially suggested by the presence of the Early Iron Age pit, although the absence of other features from surrounding trenches implies that any associated settlement was dispersed, of low intensity and possibly short-lived.
The results of the geophysical survey allow the segmented ditch line to be traced for a length of at least 320m across the site, whilst the survey of aerial photographs has identified a possible continuation of this feature beyond the site, to the south-west. Here, its path crosses the sloping lower ground below Dane Hill, and heads towards land rising up to the Chippenham barrow cemetery and associated Bronze Age ring ditches, broadly along the axis of the Icknield Belt. This ditch may have served to define a routeway between the monuments in the south-west and the area of Howe Hill barrow and the Kennett Valley.
Aside from a single sherd of medieval pottery, no other archaeological remains were recovered from the site. The overall scarcity of artefacts and cut features (corroborating the results of the non-intrusive surveys) suggests the site was not subject to prolonged periods of settlement activity, and did not attract additional funerary activity around the Howe Hill barrow.