Medieval Agricultural Features at Ely Community College: An Archaeological Evaluation

The Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council undertook an archaeological evaluation in advance of a school building development and the construction of tennis courts, and an all weather pitch, on playing fields to the rear of Ely Community College between 24th July and 5th August 2003. The work was commissioned by Mouchel Property Services of behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council.
The evaluation revealed that the area of proposed development has been subject to two phases of medieval/post-medieval agricultural activity. The earlier phase comprised a series of relatively small ditches, seemingly part of a small enclosure. They were masked by a later phase of post-medieval ridge and furrow field system. The archaeological features of the earlier phase survived at a depth of 0.6m to 1.06m below the modern ground surface. The ridge and furrow was evident on the surface as subtle, fairly regular undulations running WNW-ESE.
Pottery recovered from the features in trench 8 indicates a date range of mid 11th to early 15th century for the agricultural enclosure. Other finds retrieved from the topsoil date from the 25th to 18th centuries. It is clear that the site has been used primarily for agriculture from the medieval period until the construction of the Community College in the 20th century.