Land Rear of 9 West End, Wilburton, Cambridgeshire

Between the 13th and 17th of May 2019 Oxford Archaeology East conducted an archaeological trial trench evaluation on land to the rear of 9 West End, Wilburton, Cambridgeshire (centred on TL 4775 7495).
The evaluation consisted of five trenches that were excavated within the area of a proposed residential development, covering 5% of the c.0.90ha area. The site was located on a ridge of high ground at the western edge of the village. The ground sloped down into the valley base to the south and into the core of the village to the east. The trenches revealed a fairly dense concentration of Early Romano-British ditches in the central and north-eastern part of the site that indicated the presence of Roman (and possibly earlier) activity that had ended by c.AD70. In addition, three post-medieval ditches were identified in the same area representing a post-medieval field system on the edge of the village. Further undated ditches and pits spread across the evaluated area (probably part of the Romano-British or post-medieval field system) and a single posthole was present in the western half of the site. The south-eastern corner of the site was in a slight depression, overlooked by trees that have been on the site since the mid-19th century. A layer of colluvium filled the depression.
The features towards the north-eastern corner of the site (especially the central part of Trench 3 and northern part of Trench 4), as well as the topsoil and subsoil overburden, yielded a fairly sizeable assemblage of finds, including an iron nail and a fragment of a modern pitchfork tine, 2846g of Romano-British pottery, 84g of medieval pottery and 357g of post-medieval pottery; 1609g of late medieval to post-medieval ceramic building material; 500g of possibly Late Iron Age or Early Romano-British fired clay and 250g of undiagnostic fired clay; 11g of clay tobacco pipe stem from the subsoil and topsoil; and 637g of cattle, sheep/goat, fish and large, medium and small mammal bone. The pottery assemblage possibly represents material discarded into middens that were then used to infill the ditches.
Environmental sampling of features across the site produced two heavily abraded weed seeds and a small amount of charcoal, with the heavy clay matrix of the natural geology affecting preservation of seed remains.
Overall the archaeological works have confirmed the presence of preserved remains across the northern two thirds of the site, with a particular concentration towards the north-east. The results of the evaluation provide further evidence of Romano-British activity on the islands of the Cambridgeshire fenland and post-medieval field systems which pre-date 19th century enclosure.