Neolithic Activity Near Blaby's Drove, Sutton: An Archaeological Evaluation

In October and November 1996, the Archaeological Field Unit (AFU) of Cambridgeshire County Council carried out an archaeological evaluation of land near Blaby's Drove, North Fen, Sutton, Cambridgeshire (TL 404/815). The work was commissioned by R and P Baker Ltd on behalf of PJ Lee and Sons, and was undertaken in accordance with a brief designed by the County Archaeology Office.

The evaluation area lies in an area of known prehistoric activity, with a series of Bronze Age barrows in the vicinity and an important Neolithic flint scatter site just to the south, all discovered by the Fenland Survey Project. During the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age the gravel terraces on which these sites lie were dry but subsequent peat growth prevented further development of the landscape before the drainage programmes of the 17th century AD.

The western part of the evaluation area retains an intact fen sequence, with waterlogged deposits at the base, but across the rest of the area the peat horizons have been lost to wastage and ploughing, which has also brought artefacts into the ploughsoil. Fieldwalking and trial trenching conducted for the present evaluation revealed a low density of worked flint of earlier neolithic type across the area. A concentration around the trench closest to the known lithic site may mark the periphery of that occupation but in general the finds are seen as an 'off-site' scatter relating to prehistoric exploitation of features, which occasionally served as artefact traps, were also found and are relevant to understanding the nature of this off site activity. In addition, the trenches revealed recent agricultural features such as field boundaries and 'claying' pits.

Although the proposed development has been designed to avoid the known barrows, considerations should be given to potential dewatering of Neolithic deposits in the vicinity and the severing of the Fenland Survey sites from their landscape context.