Archaeological Evaluation at South Farm, Upton

In April 1995 an archaeological evaluation was carried out, in advance of the A1 road widening development, by the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council. The site lies adjacent to the Little Chef, Upton (TL 1841/7896), 19 km south of Peterborough, 8km to the north of Huntingdon, and 1km to the east of the village of Upton, Cambridgeshire. One hundred and fifty metres of trenching was located to intersect the possible extensions of a rectilinear archaeological field system associated with the prehistoric and Roman settlement of Monk's Wood Farm, Sawtry, identified from aerial photographs (Cox 1995: Pelling and Leith 1992). A very limited amount of artefactual evidence was uncovered in the trenches which suggests that the site has been mainly for agricultural purposes throughout its history. The topsoil and subsoil produced no artefactual material whatsoever. Forty two features were isolated in the base of the trenches, eighteen of which were identified as being of archaeological interest. The remainder were investigated and found to be geological in origin. Of the eighteen features, eleven or just over 61% were excavated, the remainder being identifiable as previously recorded anomalies, (e.g. two pipe trenches) or were comparable in terms of alignment and fill to the other excavated features. The earliest archaeological features on the site appear to be the two very similar 'U' shaped cuts which are almost certainly truncated field drains or boundary ditches. Due to presence of an abraded sherd of Romano-British pottery in each, and the lack of pottery from anywhere else on site, it would appear that these features may date from that period. The presence of Romano-British pottery in this area probably relates to the Romano-British settlement at Monk's Wood Farm, Sawtry. Many of the linear features, identified in the aerial photographs, have very similar north, north-westerly/south, south-easterly alignment to those on the site. These features proved to be eighteenth century in date.