Medieval Settlement Remains at West Street, Isleham: An Archaeological Monitoring Brief

Between December 1st 1999 and 26th June 2000, an archaeological evaluation was undertaken on 0.81 hectares of land at West Street, Isleham (TL 6400 7405), by staff of the Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit. The work was carried out during the construction of 5 houses and associated services on the site as part of a mitigation strategy to preserve the majority of the archaeology on the site beneath the buildings.

Sixteen trenches were excavated across the site, during nine visits, to ascertain the presence or absence of archaeological remains. The subsequent investigation of the trenches revealed archaeological remains in all trenches, although many were only partially visible. A large boundary ditch was recorded running northwest-southeast, along with a number of smaller ditches which would have formed smaller property boundaries in the medieval period. In addition a number of horticultural beds or terracing was also observed. These findings confirmed the results of the evaluation carried out in 1977, which also identified these and other remains. although additional individual features were discovered during the monitoring brief, these did not alter the understanding of the site significantly.