The Rickett Field Site, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridgeshire. Report on the 2006 Excavation

Abstract

Archaeological excavation and test-pitting carried out at Rickett Field revealed scatters of Mesolithic-Early Bronze Age worked flint but few definable prehistoric features other than a single Early Iron Age pit containing knapped flint and 24 sherds of pottery. Evidence for Romano-British activity was also slight; no features were located although six abraded sherds were recovered from the fills of later features and from the buried land surface, suggesting at the most, an area of pasture or only minor cultivation during the Roman period. One probable Medieval ditch associated with a field system and blocks of ridge and furrow was identified, alongside a number of post-medieval field boundaries and the tree-planting holes for a mid-late 17th century tree-lined avenue, probably that of Walnut Tree Walk shown on the 1716 map of Abington Hall and its estate.