Archaeological Evaluations at Crosshall Road, Eaton Ford, St Neots

During October 1995 the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council excavated six evaluation trenches at Crosshall Road, Eaton Ford, St Neots (TL 1787/6018). Work was undertaken on behalf of Smith and Farrer Properties Ltd in accordance with the archaeological brief supplied by the County Archaeological Office, Cambridgeshire County Council. The development site lies on the western side of the River Great Ouse close to St Neots Bridge. The site of the medieval priory and market lay on the eastern bank of the river. The location of the site offered the potential for the preservation of paleoenvironmental remains and organic artefacts of prehistoric, Roman and medieval date. The archaeological trenching programme exposed three ditches all of which cut through the alluvial deposits. Though no finds were recovered these archaeological features are probably post-medieval, or more recent in date given their stratigraphic position within the alluvial sequence. Neither of these proved to run the full extent of the site and down towards the river, a drainage function can therefore be excluded. The ditch in trench 4 (17) may represent a boundary ditch, probably a field, as no suggestion of nearby settlement was encountered. Two features were recognised in Trench 3 (22 and 30), these do not extend into adjacent trenches, feature 22 was found to terminate in this trench. Given the probable recent date of these features and their penetration into the gravels it is possible that these were quarry trenches associated with the extraction of gravels for road building and construction. No structural remains were associated with the earthwork lying in the centre of the field. During trenching a ridge, formed of upcast from the quarry trenches, was recognised as running towards this platform. It is likely that this central platform results from the dumping of soil in the area, and may also have been associated with quarrying activities. No historical information has been found to support this interpretation, although local residents remember similar remains surviving to the south of this area. The results of the evaluation trenching indicate that this area is of low archaeological potential.