Land to the North-East of 7 Dock Road, Chatteris: an Archaeological Evaluation

The proposed development, covering an area approximately 0.52ha, lies to the north of the historic town of Chatteris. The development involves construction of twenty houses and 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 a pasture. The density of past activity expected in such a fen-edge position and the lack of recent development implies a high potential for the site.
The low-lying nature of the site, the shallow depth of topsoil and heavy clay subsoil means that it was unsuitable for cultivation and habitiation and was probably prone to flooding from earliest times. The spoil heaps were scanned and apart from a few sherds of post-medieval pottery, there were no finds on site.