Church of All Saints, Harston, Cambridgeshire. An Archaeological Watching Brief of the South Porch Extension

Abstract

Archaeological monitoring of groundworks in advance of the construction of an extension to the south side of the Harston parish church comprised a building footing of 24sqm and a pipe trench of 74.3m across the present churchyard. Five unmarked burials were encountered at depths of between 0.6m and 0.8m, two of which on the south side of the church had been truncated by wall foundations comprised of clunch, flint and mortar. The stone walls formed an early phase of church architecture perhaps dating to the 15th century. Another wall foundation was not directly related to the early building but comprised of the same construction material which included a reused 12th – 14th century weathering mould. It is possible that a number of the graves belong to this earliest phase of the church. A coffined inhumation of an infant was found to have been truncated by a modern drain. Dating to 1914, details of the individual are recorded in County archives. Post-Medieval truncation of other areas of the investigation area was noted in the form of sunken outhouses.