Late Saxon/Saxo-Norman Settlement Features at 38 Station Road,Soham: An Archaeological Investigation

Cambridgeshire County Coucil's Archaeological Field Unit has carried out an archaeological investigation at 38 Station Road, Soham (TL 5924/7340), in response to a brief issued by the County Archaeology Office (Development Control). The work was conducted in May 1997 for the Gifford Partnership in advance of the construction of two semi-detatched dwellings and a single unit of shared housing. The site, immediately to the north of Station Road, had previously been occupied by sheds and garages to the front, and allotments to the rear. Prior to the 1970s, it had been used as an orchard. Two linear trenches and a series of smaller test pits were opened by machine so that archaeological features could be recorded and sample excavated by hand.

The investigation has produced evidence primarily for Late Saxon/Saxo-Norman remains dating from the tenth to twelfth centuries. At least five foundation trenches have been located, implying the presence of timber structures. These remains have been dated through study of the small pottery assemblage. Late Saxon or Saxo-Norman features have now been recovered from three sites in this area, perhaps suggesting settlement spanning at-least 250m (from 38 Station Road to the site of earlier investigations at Soham County Infants School (Bray 1991)). A ditch parallel to Station Road also showed that the line of this street has probably been an important landscape feature since the Late Saxon Period.