Castor Primary School, Castor, Peterborough: Basic Archaeological Monitoring

On 26th August and 28th and 29th October 1997, foundation holes for the installation of play equipment and trenches for the foundations of a new access ramp were dug in the playground and playing field of Castor Primary School, Stocks Hill, Castor, Peterborough. As the site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, an archaeologist from Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit monitored the works. On the playing field, none of the holes penetrated sufficiently deeply to encounter undisturbed archaeological layers, the maximum depth being 0.60m. Small quantities of Roman pottery and building materials were, however found in the spoil. Of the two trenches for the ramp foundations, the southernmost (trench 1) was only 0.50m deep and did not encounter archaeological remains. In trench 2 a single feature was recorded approximately 0.50m below the surface of the playing field or 0.80m below the playground, which had been made up to about 0.40m above the level of the playing field in the recent past. The single feature was a pit containing charcoal and burnt daub fragments, some of which retained impressions of interwoven sticks or wattles. No other finds were recovered from the pit or from either of the trenches.