Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1292: summary

Archaeological monitoring on land west of Granta Cottages, Newmarket Road, Great Chesterford, Essex CB10 1NS: July-November 2017
by Mark Baister (with contributions from Sarah Carter)

Date report completed: July 2018
Location: Land west of Granta Cottages, Newmarket Road, Great Chesterford, Essex, CB10 1NS
Map reference(s): TL 50381 42775
File size: kb
Project type: Monitoring
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. Archaeological monitoring was carried out on land west of Granta Cottages, Market Road, Great Chesterford during a groundworks and drainage associated with the construction of a residential dwelling. The site was located partially within the boundary of a 4th-century Roman town, which is also a scheduled monument.

Despite the proximity to known archaeological remains, uncovered during an evaluation immediately to the north of the new dwelling, only a single undated posthole was observed during the monitoring. The lack of evidence of the Roman town wall or its associated ditch in any of the monitored trenches suggests that the proposed alignment of the wall may need to be reconsidered.

Two unstratified sherds of mid-to-late 2nd-century samian ware were recovered during the monitoring, and presumably originated from the Roman fort pre-dating the 4thcentury Roman town.