12 West Street, Isleham, Cambridgeshire: An Archaeological Evaluation

Abstract

An archaeological evaluation was carried out at 12 West Street, Isleham, and consisted of six trenches and ten test pit stations located within a total area off 0.75 ha. A series of linear features were identified and found to contain 13th and 14th century pottery. The earliest of these was a wide boundary ditch which ran north-south across the site and on an alignment remarkably similar to the medieval earthwork features associated with the scheduled Benedictine Priory 70m to the east. As well as its orientation, its infill date of the middle 13th century, coinciding with the recorded abandonment of the priory for Linton and its subsequent conversion to a manor, suggests the ditch represents the westernmost boundary of the original priory precinct. Other boundaries were recorded including a ditch demarcating land plots off West Street. This divided an area occupied by the robbed foundation trenches of a building to the east, and a garden wall and associated horticultural features to the west. Towards the fen edge, the northernmost end of the site, deposits of up to 1m in depth were found consisting of a probable prehistoric buried soil horizon overlain by medieval and modern ploughsoils. Features were also seen in the majority of the test stations, although their primary objective of sampling background artefact densities was diminished by an absence of early deposits other than cut features caused by truncation across much of the site. An earlier version of the current north and eastern boundary walls of the site was recognised in the form of a robber trench which contained materials belonging to the late 19th century.