Romano-British Droveway acitivity on a Roddon at Church Road, Christchurch, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire: An Archaeological Evaluation

The Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC AFU) conducted an evaluation on 0.69ha of land at Church Road, Christchurch, Wisbech in Cambridgeshire (TL 4916 9649). The site was recorded prior to the proposed housing development.
The evaluation revealed a series of ditches running east to west cut into a roddon that dominated the site. The deposits underlying the roddon were exposed to both satisfy the brief and allow for a better understanding of the depositional sequence.
The full sequence of fluvial deposits making up the roddon was recorded. In its latest phase probable channels of natural origin were recorded, and these were subsequently reinforced and/or replaced by ditches on similar alignments. No features running on a different alignment were exposed.
The paucity of artefactual evidence recovered did not enable a clear picture of the history of the exploitation of the site to be formed, although this lack of finds tends to suggest that the activity was not domestic. No direct dating for the final phase fluvial deposits or for the two or more phases of replacement ditches was recovered, although it seems certain that these are part of the Romano-British field system already mapped here from aerial photographs.
The information gathered at this site, when combined with that drawn from the surrounding landscape, implies that the roddon was incorporated into the form of the Romano-British field system as its key east-west cross member. The ditches along its length provided functions of both water management and as droveway boundaries, enabling access to ‘cells’ within the field system and perhaps offering a link into a wider system of droveways.