Areas 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8, Grange Farm Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire

Between the 13th of October 2023 and the 23rd of April 2025, Oxford Archaeology carried out a campaign of excavations across Grange Farm, Alconbury Weald in Cambridgeshire ahead of a proposed residential development. Six separate mitigation areas were investigated (9.6ha). The earliest features identified comprised two Middle Bronze Age ditches in Area 2. The most significant phase of activity at the site occurred in the Middle Iron Age, with three distinct enclosure complexes exposed: one in Area 1 and two in Area 2. One of the enclosures recorded in Area 2 possibly comprised a banjo enclosure and both of the Area 2 enclosures contained roundhouses. Three further Middle Iron Age roundhouses were recorded beyond the confines of the enclosures in Area 2 and one roundhouse was recorded in Area 1. Parts of a Roman field system were exposed in Areas 1, 4 and 7. They comprised elements of possibly four separate fields, with planting trenches and ditches identified. A possible Roman trackway was recorded between two of the fields evidenced in Area 1. A watering hole and eight ditches of Roman date were also exposed in Area 2. More recent (medieval to post-medieval) activity was represented by evidence of ridge and furrow agriculture and boundary ditches in several of the excavation areas. Some of these features could have related to the nearby medieval moated site of Prestly Wood.