A Roman Cemetery and Settlement Remains at 6 Stratford Road, Sandy, Bedfordshire: An Archaeological Evaluation

The Cambridgeshire County Council's Archaeological Field Unit conducted an archaeological evaluation between the 8th and 11th of March 2005 at 6 Stratford Road, Sandy, Bedfordshire (TL 1818/4793). The work was carried out in advance of the construction of a house. This evaluation uncovered evidence for both ribbon development adjacent to the Roman road south of Roman Sandy, and a late Roman inhumation cemetery, behind this to the west. The settlement appears to be of 2nd to 4th century date, while the cemetery appears to be of mid to late 4th century in date. The burials were all inhumations, east to west aligned with the heads at the west end and with no grave goods. This may appear typically Christian, but by the late 4th century most burials were of this nature. The majority of the Roman archaeology was sealed by ploughsoil and a sandy subsoil; some features were also cut through an earlier subsoil. This layer in turn sealed a small number of features at the eastern end of Trench 1. Only one feature was demonstrated to cut through the upper subsoil layer. The total depth of overburden sealing the archaeological deposits varied between 0.4m and 0.9m