Probable site of Roman watermill, outside the Second Walled Enclosure, on the River Cam, Great Chesterford (EHER 83332)

Finds from an ironwork hoard demonstrate the probable existence of a watermill at Great Chesterford, which is suggested to be on the site of the medieval and post-medieval watermill (EHER 15065).

There is sufficient evidence, in the form of the iron mill pivot and framework for a mechanical mill from the iron hoard, to demonstrate that there was a Roman watermill at Great Chesterford. The most probable location for such a structure is where the medieval and post-medieval mill (EHER 15065) was located, immediately outside the south-western corner of the Second Walled Enclosure. <1> The evidence for the water-mill consists of the finding of a stone trough, originally derived from a large stone monument (see above), at the mill in 1732. The wear and deposits on the stone suggest that it had been retrieved from the mill-race. A second carved trough (possibly from the same original monument) was found in 1983 in the garden of Icknield House 120m away (EHER 49175); this example has two over-flow channels cut into its rim. In addition four stone 'coffins' or troughs have also been found in the area of the mill and railway station (EHER 16398). C. Going (unpublished) suggests that the circumstantial evidence suggests the presence of a large-scale water-mill, possibly incorporating a fulling as well as a corn-grinding function, having stood on the approximate site of the later medieval structure. <2>