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| Fieldwalking 2010-2011 |
At the end of September 2010 we started to look at the fields of Bennell's Farm, Comberton. Colin Coates had spotted some crop marks on the fields to the north of the farm buildings using Google Earth and Terry Dymott organised access with the farmer Mr Tebbitt. The fields are on the north side of the Bourn river valley and slope up to the north. We spent ten Sunday mornings here, and on the 14th November, at the highest point, found a scatter of Roman pottery, the usual 2nd to 4th century wares. This site covers no more than 50m east to west and abuts a hedge on the north; we were unable to properly look at the field beyond as it was sown with oil seed rape. The small nature of the pottery spread suggests that this is an outlying Roman farmstead, perhaps related to the villa known at Comberton.
As an interlude from the heavy clay of West Cambridgeshire, we visited Burwell Fen on the 23rd January 2011. Here we looked at the spoil heaps of peat created as part of the management of the site by the National Trust. We were joined by seventeen members of the public, organised by Lois Baker from NT Wicken Fen, for them to experience some practical archaeology. In the event, on a cold grey day, we found a small handful of Neolithic struck flint and a bone that was a bovine astragalus (ankle bone), perhaps of an Auroch. Thanks to the efforts of our members, the visitors had a good morning and we recovered a few finds.
Then back to the heavy clay, across the Toft- Hardwick road to Wood Barn Farm, again access organised by Terry Dymott. Six weeks later and we have few finds to report from these large open boulder clay fields. There was an area near the farm with 18th and 19th century pottery and Liz Tomkins found a superb circular fossil on a large piece of sandstone.
John Waterhouse and Stephen Reed have made great progress in working on record files from previous sites and we hope that we will be able to lodge copies of them all with the HER in the near future.
Hopefully the rest of the fieldwalking season will be more productive and rewarding.
March 2011
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