Palaeochannels at Land off Park Road, Brampton: An Archaeological Evaluation

Archaeological desk based research and fieldwork was carried out by the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council at Land off Park Road, Brampton (TL 201709), during July 1997.Archaeological work was undertaken on behalf of Yelcon Homes. The proposed development involves the construction of residential dwellings, garages, services, access and landscaping. Seven trenches of 1.6m width, and varying in length between 12m and 50m were machine excavated with a total trench length of 212m. trenches were positioned so as to sample the area as thoroughly as possible and with reference to the previous desktop assessment. The basic stratigraphic sequence encountered in all trenches consisted of terrace gravels overlain by varying depths of alluvial clays and silts, which was in turn overlain by topsoil with sorting indicative of pastureland. Alluvial material was considerably deeper in the south of the field (Trench V), and at the west end of trench II. In both of these areas considerable depths of silts and peat were recorded underneath alluvial material, indicating the presence of a palaeochannels. Within one of these palaeochannels possible worked wood was recovered. The alluvial material would appear to date primarily to the medieval and early medieval and early modern period when the area formed part of a common marsh or wet meadowland resource. No archaeological features were present other than the palaeochannels, and artefactual material recovered was limited to two worked flint flakes. Given the results of this extensive trenching strategy it is unlikely that any archaeological remains are present within the application area.