Willingham Mere-Side Investigations. 2016 Excavations within Hanson’s Over/Needingworth Quarry

Abstract

The 2016–17 excavations were undertaken between September 2016 and February 2017 as part of the fourth mitigation phase at Hanson’s Over/Needingworth quarry. The project was undertaken in response to Hanson’s application for mineral extraction within the current target area and a request from Cambridgeshire County Council Historic Environment Team for archaeological investigation. Seven areas of investigation were defined following archaeological evaluation in 2012 and subsequent open-area excavations in 2015. A 0.93ha area – Site XII bund & XIII (TL397737) – targeted a northwest-southeast aligned Middle Bronze Age ditch-line and Post-Medieval features whilst a 6ha area encompassing Site IX bund and Site X (TL395734) targeted Middle Bronze Age field boundaries and Neolithic activity. Two additional double-width trenches were located between Site-areas X and XIII. Prior to these excavations, archaeological monitoring was undertaken during excavation of the Internal Drainage Board (IDB) watercourse (hereafter referred to as the Diversion Ditch), which comprised a 0.42ha, 1366m long ‘corridor’ (8m-wide) around the footprint of the extraction area to the southwest and southeast.