Medieval Deposits at 54 Broad Street, Ely: An Archaeological Recording Brief

On the 5th and 7th March 1996 the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council completed a recording brief during the excavation of three foundation trenches at the rear of No. 54 Broad Street, Ely (TL 5343/8002). The work was commissioned by Mr M. Grey. The trenches were excavated by hand to a depth of 4.6m OD. The work revealed that the upper layers consisted of post-medieval rubble, which possibly formed a sequence of yard surfaces. Beneath the post-medieval deposits was a series of layers, the lower three of which were waterlogged. These contained medieval pottery, animal bone, mussel shells and a leather shoe sole, material which spans a date range between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries AD. The waterlogged layers could represent the fills of a large pit or ditch which periodically contained standing water. No structural remains were encountered in the trenches but the artefacts recovered during the work represent a domestic rubbish assemblage, suggesting that the site at 54 Broad Street has contained dwellings since at least the fourteenth century. However, the work did not reach the base of archaeological deposits.