Medieval and Post-medieval Activity in the Grounds of Ramsey Abbey College, Ramsey, Cambridgeshire

Between 24th March and 21st May 2021, Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out a strip, map and sample investigation followed by a watching brief in the grounds of Ramsey Abbey College, prior to the installation of a new 3G football pitch. The 0.83ha site was located within the school’s playing fields, just to the north of the sports centre.
The site was known to be within the precinct of Ramsey Abbey, a medieval Benedictine abbey destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. This project is part of a wider body of work aiming to enhance understanding of the abbey and its relationship with the wider landscape. Previous works in the area had uncovered a system of long-lived ditches, originally dating to the medieval period, and evidence of post-medieval industry including a 16th-17th century brick clamp kiln.
The results of this excavation are consistent with the previous findings in this part of the abbey grounds, with the earliest features relating to a medieval field/drainage system and possible defensive ditch. Two large medieval boundary ditches were also uncovered which had been recut multiple times. Finds recovered from the uppermost fills of these ditches indicated that they had finally been backfilled in the 19th or 20th centuries. Several large pits and a rough stone surface, possibly associated with the brick kiln, were also found that relate to the later chapters in the history of Ramsey Abbey and its post-Dissolution use.
A range of artefacts was recovered that are similar in character to assemblages from previous investigations in the vicinity and are dominated by medieval pottery and ceramic building material; the latter including a fragment of an unusual roof finial similar to an example recovered from Ely.