In April 2025, KDK Archaeology Ltd undertook an archaeological evaluation at Nene Lodge, Funthams Lane, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, prior to the development of the site. In line with the requirements of the brief (CHET 2024), the methods used were as follows: An archaeological field evaluation of the site comprised three linear trenches (one 30m x 1.8m and two 20m x 1.8m; total area of 126m2) In April 2025, KDK Archaeology Ltd undertook an archaeological evaluation at Nene Lodge, Funthams Lane, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, prior to the development of the site. The evaluation entailed the excavation of three trial trenches, two of which were blank. However, Trench 2 contained a possible boundary or drainage ditch, a pit, and a potentially natural gully. Unfortunately, no datable material was found within any of the fills of these three features. The stratigraphy revealed in all three trenches comprised modern made-ground overlying subsoil and the natural geology. The ditch in Trench 2, and potentially the other two features, probably represent a rural or semi-rural context, suggesting that this area may have been on the periphery of Whittlesey, or beyond any occupation centre. The modern market town lies adjacent to an extensive area of prehistoric wetland activity and occupation, and from at least the Anglo-Saxon to the post-medieval period, the settlement was an island of dry ground surrounded by marshy fen. This was largely agricultural, and with centuries of improved drainage increasingly brought the surrounding land into productive arable use.
Derek Watson (Wed,) studied this question.