Eames Garden Centre, Eye Road, Peterborough: An Archaeological Evaluation

During December 1998 and February 1999 an archaeological evaluation was undertaken at Eames Garden Centre, Eye Road, Peterborough (TF 2120 0081) by Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeology Field Unit in advance of a residential development. A desktop study carried out before the fieldwork drew attention to the site's high archaeological potential, and highlighted the fact that the presumed course of the Roman Car Dyke lay along its western boundary. It was considered possible that the site might contain either a segment of Car Dyke itself, or possibly evidence of canal-side activities connected with it.

In spite of this, the evaluation uncovered only minimal remains. A stone-lined kiln or oven and an oval pit of uncertain function were found but neither contained any dating evidence. A sewer trench dug across Eye Road was monitored but did not reveal any traces of Car Dyke, although there was a lot of disturbance from previous service trenches.

The paucity of remains uncovered, however, was probably not due to an absence of activity in the past but, more likely, to the high degree of disturbance caused by previous construction work undertaken on the site in the recent past.