Iron Age and Roman Archaeology along the proposed route of the Fordham Bypass: an Archaeological Evaluation

Between the 22nd of January and the 5th of March 2002 staff of the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council conducted an archaeological evaluation on land along the route of the proposed A142 Fordham bypass (TL612717 and TL630690). The work was commissioned by WS Atkins Consultant Ltd on behalf of the Department of Environment and Transport of Cambridgeshire County Council.
The evaluation consisted of the excavation of seventy-nine trenches; the equivalent of a 7% sample of the bypass route. The trenches were located across and within the road corridor in order to obtain a representative coverage of the area under investigation.
Six significant archaeological sites were identified. In Area , which lies on the 15m contour at the southern end of the bypass, possible evidence for prehistoric timber buildings, fences and a field system of possible Bronze or Early Iron Age date were found in this area. Quarrying appears to have represented the dominant activity in the Iron Age. The presence of a site at this location is consistent with evidence for an Early Iron Age settlement excavated at Landwade Road further south. Site 2 is a ditched enclosure in the northern half of Area 1 and has been tentatively dated to the post-medieval period. This is probably the remains of a stock enclosure close to the medieval fen edge. The site lies just below the 10m contour and cuts through the medieval peats of West Fen.
Site 3 lies at the northern end of Area 2 adjacent to Station Road. A series of small ditches and a curvilinear gully can be found amongst remnants of post-medieval and modern drainage activities. No dating evidence was recovered from these earlier features however they have some resemblance to Site 4 and are not too distant from FW3.
Site 4 was identified in the southern half of Area 3 on the 5m contour where evidence of a possible prehistoric timber-built structure was found. Further north, Area 3 contained pits and field boundary ditches (Site 5). In one of the trenches the pits appeared to truncate the ditches. No dating evidence was retrieved from the features, with the exception of a fragment of post-medieval pottery from a ditch re-cut. The presence fo finds in the topsoil (FW1 and 2) would suggest that this archaeology is of prehistoric date.
Site 6 was located near the northern end of the bypass route in Area 5 and lies on the 10m contour. Here the evaluation revealed the presence of Romano-British quarry pits and the remains of a field system. In addition, residual early Iron Age pottery was retrieved from some of these features. Finds uncovered in the past through chance discovery, fieldwalking and metal-detecting confirm Iron Age and Romano-British activity throughout this area.
Both pits and ditches are likely to be prehistoric and Roman in date as they lie below the extent of medieval peat growth extrapolated from Area 1. The presence of disturbed flint scatters in the topsoil may indicate the presence of a prehistoric working site at this location.
A ditch in Area 4 contained a Bronze Age scraper, properly residual to the feature in which it was found but coupled with a scatter of struck flint and Iron Age and Roman metalwork recorded on the SMR there is the possibility of human activity nearby.
Finally, Area 6 produced no archaeological features partly due to the high degree of disturbance caused by modern landscaping.
Trenching was incomplete in Area 6 due to conifer plantations which needed to be retained at the time of the evaluation. In addition no trenching could occur within the stable area on the northern side of Station Road.