Land at Ferrars Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire: Archaeological Field Evaluation

Planning consent was granted for the construction of a care home on land at Ferrars Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. One of the conditions of the consent related to archaeology was to implement a scheme of archaeological work, the initial phase of which was to comprise archaeological field evaluation in the form of trial trenching. This was in accordance with advice provided to the Local Planning Authority by their advisors, Cambridgeshire County Council's Historic Environment Team. Six trenches were opened across the site. Archaeological features were revealed in all but one of the trenches. The features comprised mainly quarry pits which are believed to originate from the post-medieval period. A small number of residual pottery sherds dating to the Saxo-Norman and medieval periods were found, suggesting that there was possibly Saxo-Norman and medieval activity in the area. However, any physical evidence for its presence has been disturbed and/or completely removed by subsequent activity on site. Other features and deposits of post medieval/modern date include a ditch, a pond, basement structure and layers of dumped material. The results of the trial trenching suggest that the evaluation area was extensively used during the post-medieval and modern periods for quarrying and then as the site for industrial/manufacturing premises.