Archaeological Excavations at Manor Farm, Yaxley, cambridgeshire

Abstract

Excavations were carried out prior to possible development of the site of Manor Farm, Yaxley. Previous work had suggested the presence of a moat, perhaps enclosing the original site of the manor house. The excavations proved that no such moat existed in that area, the cut features observed were part of an extensive series of ponds, perhaps for fish , apparently supplied by a ditch system still visible in the fields to the north of the farmyard complex. Pottery, and one possible earlier feature, attested a Roman presence in the area. Several ditches were revealed dating to the twelfth to fourteenth century. No direct evidence was found to locate the site of the original Manor house, which may lie to north. A building survey suggested that the standing buildings, including the present house, were all rather later than had been presumed. The house and barns contained reused earlier elements, but generally dated to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Records were also made of several nineteenth and twentieth century farmyard features which will not survive any re-development of the site.