Land to the rear of 65 New Road, Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire: An Archaeological Evaluation

The proposed development, covering an area of approximately 0.15ha, lies to the north of the historic centre of Haslingfield. The development involves construction of a bungalow with related services. The site lies in an area of potentially rich archaeological remains. There are significant remains of all periods in the parish but nothing is known from the site itself. There does not appear to have been any development during the past century and recently it has been covered in willows, fir and fruit trees. During August 2000 an evaluation was carried out. Two trenches were machine excavated, topsoil was removed from each trench but no archaeological remains were revealed. Four test pits were machine excavated by the structural engineer and these were monitored for archaeological remains.
Fragments of pottery (Roman and medieval) were recovered from the top soil and root holes. A feature was noted in one test pit, adjacent to the existing site boundary, which may represent an earlier boundary ditch. The soft disturbed nature of the upper sub-soil horizon in part of the site may represent backfilling of an earlier pond. The removal of trees has caused considerable disturbance to a depth of over 1.5m across the site.