West Fen Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire: Cotmist Field. Assessment Report

Abstract

The proposed development covers an area of c. 22.6 hectares on the west side of the city of Ely. It is bounded on the north by West Fen Road; on the west by the A10 bypass; on the east by the western suburb of Ely; and to the south by St Johns Road. The area dealt with in this report lies at the north of the development, along West Fen Road, c. 1 kilometre to the west of Ely Cathedral. The excavation covers approximately four hectares in two small fields, the western field (Cornwell) ex-arable, the higher, eastern field (Cotmist) ex-pasture with visible remains of ridge and furrow. The excavation took place in advance of the first stage of a housing development by The Ashwell Group Ltd. and were carried out by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit between April and July 1999.