The Meadows, St Catherine's Road, Cambridge

Phase 1: In December 2020, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at The Meadows, St Catherine's Road, Cambridge. A total of 5 trenches were excavated as part of the first phase of evaluation of the overall 3.33ha site. Phase 2: In July 2021, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at The Meadows, St Catherine's Road, Cambridge. A total of nine trenches were excavated as part of this second phase of evaluation of the overall 3.33ha site. Phase 3: In April 2024, Cotswold Archaeology carried a third phase of evaluation on land at The Meadows, St Catherine's Road, Cambridge. Five trenches were excavated as part of this final phase of evaluation of the overall 3.33ha site In December 2020, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at The Meadows, St Catherine�s Road, Cambridge. A total of 5 trenches were excavated as part of the first phase of evaluation of the overall 3.33ha site. The evaluation recorded a large cut feature in the eastern part of the site and six ditches in the western part. Two of the five trenches contained no archaeological features. Three ditches identified in trench three all ran broadly parallel to possible ridge and furrow anomalies identified by a preceding geophysical survey. One of the ditches, which had been recut at least once, broadly corresponds with a boundary depicted on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map running northwest to southeast across the site. A second ditch, running northwest/ southeast at 90 degrees to the former, also seems likely to represent a postmedieval boundary ditch although it does not correspond with any boundaries depicted on historic maps. The third, comparatively shallow, ditch at only 0.11m deep may be the remains of a furrow. A large cut feature, possibly a waterhole, pond or extraction pit, was recorded in the central part of the site, in trench 18. No dating evidence was recovered from the feature and no corresponding features are shown on historic maps of the site but a field pond/ extraction pit is depicted on the 1840 Chesterton Tithe Map in a field to the northeast. An environmental sample taken from the basal fill of the feature contained only a single charred vetch/wild pea seed and a small number of heavily iron impregnated charcoal fragments. No plant remains/waterlogged material was identified although small numbers of aquatic snail shells were noted. A small quantity of animal bone was also recovered from the samples, including a molar tooth from a species of vole. However, the remaining fragments were too fragmented to ascertain whether they were either mammal or amphibian in origin. Three ditches were revealed in trench 1, none of which produced datable artefacts although a very small quantity of hammerscale and fragments of cattle bone were recovered from one of them. None are recorded on historic maps but all were orientated broadly northeast/southwest, potentially at 90 degrees to the recut northwest/southeast boundary seen in trench 3 and their spatial layout seems to suggest that they represent the remains of a rectilinear field system. No clear evidence for any activity predating the post-medieval period was identified during this phase of the evaluation. PHASE 2: July 2021, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at The Meadows, St Catherine�s Road, Cambridge. A total of nine trenches were excavated as part of this second phase of evaluation of the overall 3.33ha site. The evaluation recorded a number of ditches, most likely related to the drainage and agricultural management of the site. The majority of these ran on a broad northwest to southeast alignment, matching the orientation of similar ditches identified in the first phase of evaluation, although a north-south aligned ditch was recorded in trench 14 and a single eastwest aligned ditch was investigated in trench 16.