Environment Agency Flood Defence Improvement works at “The Moorings”, Houghton, Cambridgeshire. An Archaeological Watching Brief

Abstract

An archaeological watching brief carried out on flood defence improvement works at 'The Moorings' just to the west of Houghton Mill identified two phases of former flood bank construction using imported clay and brick waste and dating to around the middle to late nineteenth century. At the eastern end of the route for the new flood bank a slot trench sunk for the insertion of a clay membrane cut through a layer organic river silts and alluvium containing an archaeological horizon consisting of dumped burnt hearth material, burnt grain, bone and some Early Medieval (13th-14th century AD) pottery.