A Flint Scatter at Nine Wells, Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire.
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Abstract
Nine Wells, Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire [TL 46145 54173] is a small spinney of beech, ash and maple woodland at the foot of White Hill, containing several fine chalk spring heads (see Figure 1). The source of Hobson’s Conduit, water rises from the Totternhoe Stone, a hard and fissured band within the Chalk bedrock. The site was once a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) scheduled for its rare aquatic macro-invertebrate fauna. It is currently scheduled as a Local Nature reserve (LNR) and a Local Geological Site (LGS). The site is important for wildlife, conservation, heritage, geomorphology and geology, but there is no record of any archaeological interest, although crop marks have been reported in the fields to the east (Evans 2008). Recently (June 2017) Nine Wells was the focus for a BioBlitz organized by Hobson’s Conduit Trust. It was at this event that one of us (JAB) first noticed worked flints lying on the freshly-ploughed surface at points along the southeastern boundary of the site. This was unexpected, since previous attempts to find archaeological evidence at the site spanning twenty-five years had failed. A 5 m wide boundary strip had been deep-ploughed along the southeastern boundary of the Nine Wells enclosure to remove vehicle ruts caused during the installation of four boreholes associated with a springhead flow-support initiative, and this had brought worked flints to the surface.