Archaeological Excavations at St. John's College, Cambridge

Abstract

The splendid extension to the St. John's College library now commands the southwest corner of Chapel Court. Prior to construction the College funded a series of archaeological investigations to enable damage to any surviving evidence of the history of the site to be mitigated by its being recorded. The archaeological investigations comprised four phases of work: Phase 1 - 1990 Desktop Study: Initially a detailed desktop study was conducted by Dr. Todd Whitelaw, a Fellow of the College (Whitelaw 1990). This considered the available documentary and map information, summarising the known history of the northwest part of the town in general and the area around the College in particular. Phase 2 -1991 FieldAssessment: Following the desktop a field assessment was commissioned in the summer of 1991. This was conducted by Christopher Evans and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) assisted by Dr. Whitelaw (Evans 1991). The assessment showed that up to four metres of archaeology survived beneath the Chapel courtyard. The results of the assessment report are summarised in Part II of this volume. Phase 3 - 1992 Excavation: The main excavations were conducted by the CAU in the summer of 1992. Two trenches, one either side of the Penrose Building, were excavated under the direction of Jim Hunter. The report of that excavation is the main text of this volume. A note describing additional watching brief information follows it. Phase 4 - 1993 Excavation/Watching Brief: A further excavation was conducted by the CAU, under the direction of Janet Miller, in the autumn of 1993 (Miller 1993). This was restricted to the area of the sunken courtyard and allowed a more in-depth examination of the post-medieval levels. The report of that work is summarised in Part III of this volume.