St Andrew's Church Chesterton, Cambridge

Between the 25th to the 28th September 2023 Oxford Archaeology carried out a watching brief at St Andrew's Church, Chesterton, Cambridge during the installation of a new drain and soakaway close to the outside wall of the south aisle. The excavation of a pipe trench for the drain revealed evidence of an earlier, post-medieval, drain, constructed of ceramic drain bricks. Below this, the trench revealed distributed ground which contained numerous disarticulated fragments of human skeletal remains, along with a small number of 17th-18th century coffin fittings. The excavation of the soakaway took place outside of the area of disturbed ground and revealed the articulated or semi-articulated remains of five individuals. The cuts of graves relating to two upstanding gravestones were also observed within the soakaway, but the inhumations associated with these graves lay below the excavated depth of the soakaway. Evidence for multiple phases of intercutting graves was revealed within the soakaway, as well as a small amount of medieval pottery. All the human skeletal remains were immediately re-interred in the churchyard following the completion of the groundworks.