High Barns, Ely: an Archaeological Evaluation

Between the 24th and 30th of January 1996 the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council undertook field evaluations, which included trenching, on a site adjacent to Larkfield Road, Ely. Four archaeological ditch alignments were encountered during the course of these evaluations. The earliest remains in trench 4 were the north-south orientated ditches which were cut by an east-west alignment of ditches. The north-south orientated ditches run down a slope suggesting they may have functioned as boundaries. Two other ditches were present in the evaluation trenches: ditch 4 a northwest-southeast orientated ditch in trench 1 and ditch 21, a northeast-southwest orientated ditch in trench 5. Excavation of ditch 4 recovered a small piece of Roman pottery. The very small quantities of pottery within the development site (verified by spoil scanning) and the absence of other types of archaeological finds and features suggest that the site is at some distance from any settlement or occupation area. The combination of pottery and historical data suggests that these ditches are likely to be of Roman or Saxon periods particularly as none of these ditch alignments continued into the existing field system or are marked on the earlier maps for this area. Traces of the twentieth century allotments were recognised during the course of this work. They lie near the centre of the field and consist of a single ditch with a parallel alignment of post-holes.